In yet another incident of gross indiscipline in the Army, officers and jawans came to blows with each other in Meerut on Thursday after a boxing competition. Two officers and one soldier were injured. A court of inquiry headed by a Brigadier is now probing the matter.
The incident took place in a battalion of Sikh light Infantry. Army Chief General Bikram Singh is an officer of the same regiment. Taking a serious note of the fracas, the fourth incident, involving officers and jawans in the last two to three years, Singh on Friday ordered expeditious probe and said there will be “zero tolerance” for such acts of indiscipline.
Giving details, officials said 10 Sikh light Infantry had gone from Delhi to Dabathua, 15 kms from Meerut for annual training exercise on Thursday. The incident took place during the inter-company boxing competition held on same evening. A Major, who was second-in-command and another Major, were injured besides a jawan.
Sources said things came to a boil when an officer persisted that a jawan should take part in the boxing match though he was not keen. This led to an argument and then snowballed into a free for all in which two officers were roughed up by a group of 10 to 12 soldiers.
Another version of the incident was that tempers flared up between the two competing companies and the soldiers came to blows. The officers tried to intervene and were also beaten up. The Army, however, refrained from giving details about circumstances leading to fisticuffs and said the court of inquiry will bring out the facts.
Reacting to the bust-up, the Army Chief said, “The acts of indiscipline will not be tolerated. There is zero tolerance to such acts of indiscipline”. “I have given directions that the Court of Inquiry should complete its probe at the earliest and ensure that strict action is taken against the defaulting personnel,” the Army Chief said.
His stern warning came in the backdrop increasing number of altercations between officers and jawans in the last two to three years. On August 8, 2012, jawans agitated against the commanding officer and certain functionaries of the 16 Cavalry unit in Samba following suicide by a jawan.
A similar incident took place in Mahe field firing range near leh on May 10-11, 2012 where the jawans and some junior officers of 226 Artillery unit fought with each other. These officers also beat up their Commanding Officer who pulled them up for not handling the jawans in a proper manner. The court of inquiry indicted 168 personnel and recommended court martial proceedings against some officers and jawans.
On April 29, 2010, an altercation had taken place between an officer and jawans of the 45 cavalry unit in Gurdaspur during PT session. The army has already taken steps against its personnel in these cases and more than 50 personnel have faced disciplinary action in the Samba and Gurdaspur episodes.
The Army in the last one year has taken several steps to address the serious issue of disconnect between jawans and officers and a review was also undertaken by a Major General rank officer in the Army Headquarters to suggest ways to improve command and control structure.