Social media can turn past practices on their head. It would be naïve to write off as “stray” the recent cases of jawans of the Central Armed Police Forces giving vent to their misgivings on social media, which have “gone viral”. There may be no direct link between the grievances aired by individuals from the BSF and the CRPF and a jawan of the CISF gunning down four of his colleagues, but what is evident is that the “discipline dynamics” of the uniformed community have been shaken to the core. The military cannot be deemed immune to that. At varying times the Army, Navy and Air Force have had their problems, now “bad news” travels faster than ever before, and the effect could be trouble spiralling out of control. Way back in 1857 a telegraphist at the GPO in Delhi had averted the “mutiny” spreading to the Punjab ~ such history will never repeat itself. Actually, the spread of the mutiny in the Royal Indian Navy at the end of WWII was facilitated by the active participation of communications personnel. Just consider what may happen in the prevailing era of instant communications.
It would be an over-simplification to suggest that a sensation-thriving media had helped blow the situation out of proportion, across the board must the officer cadres equip themselves to deal with an emerging situation. The days of “theirs not to reason why” and the discipline of the parade-ground are over, a huge challenge now presents itself. A section of the BSF “management” blundered when it sought to project the “offending” jawan as an alcoholic and trouble-maker who had violated rules by using a personal cell-phone, for many would endorse his family’s asking if he was such a black sheep why was he deployed on the front-line? The CRPF leadership handled the situation much better, admittedly its jawan had not targeted his seniors, merely raised the thorny issue of Army personnel getting a substantially better deal than their paramilitary counterparts though they now performed many common roles.
The PMO and home ministry have done well to order inquiries into the grievances, but the government would be playing with fire if the  probes were limited to specifics with an accent on breaching disciplinary codes. A thorough review of pay and service conditions is necessary, civilian-dominated Pay Commissions have made a complete mess of things (CRPF men no longer earn a pension), and military-paramilitary parity needs to be adressed ~ along with the dismay in the military ranks too. The training of officers, of all organisations, needs a thorough revamp. The “General Sahib” no longer equates to God ~ but he must initiate a miraculous transformation down the chain of command.