As an infantry officer, having served under the most difficult and arduous conditions in war and peace, I am immensely grieved to see the recent happenings in the training culture and practices of the Indian Army. These are likely to impact the secular fabric of the military ethos and military genre.

I write as a soldier, who participated in the 1971 India-Pakistan war, as well as, in the capture of Pakistani ‘Quaid post’, later renamed Bana Top at the Siachen glacier by my battalion 8 JAK LI (Siachen). I have adequate experience of training officers and men, having served as the adjutant of the prestigious Indian Military Academy and as Centre Commandant ‘The JAK LI Regimental Centre’, which has mixed troops, essentially Hindus and Muslims, recruited exclusively from Jammu and Kashmir, the erstwhile state, and now a Union Territory.

My concern is based on the recent video recording of the passing out parade held at the Artillery Regimental Centre. It has since been viewed by many on the social media. In the said video, the artillery recruits (of all faiths) are performing ‘aarti’, a Hindu ritual of worship, where lights are offered to a Hindu deity, at the drill parade ground. By carrying out an aarti, a new practice, at a formal parade ground, which is one of the most hallowed places of the Regimental Centre, what larger message was being sent to the rank and file of the Indian Army? All training culminates in holding a pristine parade where recruits align their thinking around the adage ‘Work is Worship’.