2024-10-03 02:14:24
New Delhi : Regarding the situation in Manipur, Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi said that the situation there is stable but tense. He said it will take time to rebuild trust. The Army Chief clarified that neither bomb drones were used nor armed infiltrators had entered Manipur. He said that there is a war of narrative going on there and we are trying not to create a wrong narrative.
Situation stable but tense in Manipur
The Army Chief said that the violence that started in Manipur last year started with a rumour, which led to the spread of violence. It became a battle of narratives and there was polarization among the community. He said that the situation there is stable but tense. He said that more than 60 thousand people were internally displaced, that number has now come down to less than 40 thousand. Weapons were looted, organizations led by women, underground organizations emerged which made the fight difficult.
General Dwivedi said that we have deployed about 126 columns of Army and Assam Rifles there. We are trying to rebuild trust, it will take time. He said that we have recovered 25 percent of the weapons that were looted. More local type weapons have been recovered. We are also taking advice from ex-servicemen there.
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Neither bomb, drone, nor intruder
The Army Chief said that we should not allow a wrong narrative to be created, which is what we are trying to do. He said that there was talk of bomb drone but we saw nothing like that on the ground. This narrative was created that 900 anti-national elements had entered but it was nothing like that. If we control this then things will be fine. Amidst the discussions about infiltrators coming from Myanmar, the Army Chief made it clear that there are problems going on in Myanmar too and people from there too are going to a place where there is peace and people accept them. So they are coming to Mizoram and Manipur. Those who are coming are coming unarmed and are coming for shelter.
Everyone is unanimous about theatreisation.
On the process of theaterisation of creating a theater command by merging the Army, Navy and Air Force, the Army Chief said that all three chiefs are unanimous on this and the CDS is ready to present to the leadership what kind of structure we all want. On who will head which theater command, the Army Chief said that the USP of the Air Force is technology, the human resources of the Army. The strength of Air Force is centralization and ours is de-centralization. Army is a land force and multidomain force has increased from it. Will one person or many people control? If there are too many, time will be wasted in taking decisions, hence one person is required, no matter which force he belongs to – Army, Navy or Air Force.
There is no competition in Agniveer
Regarding Agneepath Scheme and Agniveer, the Army Chief said that fear was being expressed that Agniveer would compete with each other but it is not so. I have seen on the ground, Agniveer is happy and they are not competing with each other but are supporting each other. He said that the objective of Agneepath Scheme was to create a youthful profile for the Army and we needed a youth profile for rebalancing on the Northern Front. He said that the youth who are being selected under the Agneepath Scheme are better because now they are taking the written examination first and then the physical. Mental and physical synergy is better. He said that this is a continuously growing process and many discussions are taking place regarding the internal scheme.