View: Remembering mavericks Manohar Parrikar and General Bipin Rawat

Former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and India’s first Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat were both mavericks and passed away at the age of 63 years.
Parrikar, whose death anniversary is today, was a political maverick who hated Delhi culture and was not afraid in taking bold decisions like purchase of much needed two squadrons of Rafale fighters from France.
He was also the man without whom ‘one rank one pension’ would not have been possible despite clear cut instructions to do the same from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
General Rawat was a military maverick who wanted and did update the software of the ageing Indian Armed Forces which was resistant to change and still caught up in the past in the name of tradition. ALSO READ: Remembering India’s first CDS Gen Bipin Rawat
Despite the ‘Naam, Namak, Nishan’ concept was introduced by Imperial Britain to divide the Indian Army on the basis of caste, creed and region and not towards Bharat, the Indian Army still carries that legacy of the past.
Apart from both leaders having many things in common, Parrikar and Rawat hated the time wasted on long drawn ceremonies by the Indian Armed Forces.
Not everyone in the BJP liked Parrikar including his Cabinet colleagues in Modi 1.0 for his fast decision making and others for his non-conformist style of wearing a half sleeves shirt and chappals to the hallowed corridors of Defence Ministry during Delhi winter.
But behind this bohemian attitude lay a very sharp mind and his three page paper on the future of Indian Air Force was lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he called him the best defence minister that India ever had at that meeting in PMO.
Fact is that left to the babus in the PMO and the Finance Ministry, ‘one rank one pay’ would have never been implemented had it not been for Parrikar. He made it clear that he will implement the commitment made by PM Modi to ex-servicemen at whatever cost and even fought with his Cabinet colleagues. But his heart was always in Goa and it was in his home state that he died in harness due to illness.
General Rawat was a polarising figure in Indian Armed Forces as some worshipped like a hero for his idealism towards restoring the credibility (Rasuk) of the Indian military. Others hated him for banning sale of luxury cars, high end single malts from military canteens and also not allowing golf at Srinagar 15 Corps headquarters at Badami Bagh.
He took action against corruption in the Army and ancillary forces including military engineering services and had great inter-personal relationship with mandarins on Raisina Hill.
Rawat knew how to fight a war and his enemy was China as he brushed aside the Pakistani threat. Whether it was action against anti-India insurgents in Myanmar or against expansionist PLA at Doklam or surgical strike against terrorists across LoC in occupied Kashmir, Rawat led from the front and had full support from the political leadership.
Both Parrikar and Rawat were visionaries in their own ways. Parrikar asked the Indian Navy to take the follow up option of three more Scorpene submarines after six were cleared to be constructed at MDL Mumbai.
But the myopic vision of Navy leadership did not allow it to happen then and now they want the same three submarines notwithstanding the delay of nearly a decade due to poor comprehension. Rawat knew that Indian armed forces would never synergise unless theatre commands were set up and the Army, Navy and especially the Air Force would never allow their fiefdoms to be demolished.
It is now three years since Rawat lost his life in an Air Force helicopter crash but the creation of theatre commands is still work in progress thanks to the vested interests within the service headquarters and a full fledged lobbying tribe of still colonised ex-servicemen. Just as farmers, Indian Armed Forces remain holy cows for the country but both need urgent reforms.