It is anybody’s guess what Pearl S Buck, author of the bestseller ‘Good Earth’, would have replied to the question: ‘Are women ready for combat roles in the army?’ But then, she would have answered about Chinese women only and nearly a 100 years after Buck wrote her game-changer book, the Chinese PLA is yet to show any readiness to bite that bullet. “Game-changer” because Buck’s book highlighted the Chinese in such glowing terms that it prepared the United States to choose China for an ally to fight Japan in World War-II.

General Rawat’s comments on Indian women in combat role is his assessment and he did not become Army Chief for perching his hat on his head in a certain which way. The fact of the matter is General Rawat knows his “army” better than the Social Media Warriors, who have gone to war against his assessment, will ever do. It is like Mr Sharma will know more about his family than Mr Verma who stays in the neighbourhood and is a busybody with no qualms to go wild at the mouth.

The reality is these same Social Media Warriors and feminists of both gender would be the first people to attack the army if a woman soldier evens hints of pervert male behaviour in the Indian Army. That is only part of the problem, the “Peeping Tom” trait General Rawat pointed out. Chances are women soldiers, who will have to work and soldier alongside men, will face such scrutiny day in and day out and if they take umbrage at a seemingly lurid gesture, the army top brass will be holding press conferences every other week. And army sergeants are not lily-white when it comes to passing orders in the parade ground. Their choice of lexicon will put to shame a mule-trainer!

And Social Media and mainstream media will have a field day going for the Army Chief’s gut or gullet if a woman soldier or her hubby at home complains. Do we need such embarrassments to dog the army every now and then just because feminists want to score a point? It’s like Sabarimala, feminists want to bust yet another “male only” bastion and it doesn’t matter how disruptive the move can be. For, without a doubt, women fighting on the frontline will be disruptive to an extent. The misogynist Pakistani soldier will like nothing better than to “capture” a live Indian Army woman soldier.

In fact, more Pakistani male will line up to “join” than previously if the Indian Army chooses to induct Indian women in frontline combat roles. And the “capture” will be made public by the Pakistani Army only after the “boys have had their fun”. If the Pakistani soldiers can do what they did to Capt. Saurabh Kalia, imagine what they will do to a female Indian soldier? What if the infamous BAT gets its hands on one? The Indian Army will be on tenterhook hoping and praying. Besides, chances of even a limited war erupting increases by several folds if the BAT keeps carrying away our brave eves.

Let’s not be coy, the BAT are the best brutes in the Pakistan Army and in a country like Pakistan, which is led by a Prime Minister who keeps his wife covered from head to toe, there is nothing like a woman free, even those who make forays into the Indian film industry, Bollywood! It is global lore that wars are fought over Zar, Zan and Zameen – Wealth, Women and Land! And in that limited sense, there will be more cross border intrusions if Pakistani soldiers know of the prize awaiting them this side of the border.

It will then border on the male Indian Army soldier fighting for the country as well as to protect his female counterpart who, no matter what to the contrary said, will be no match in hand-to-hand combat with the brute strength of the BAT brute or the Pathan soldier with more than murder in his heart. One such incident will be enough for media and opposition to go for the army top-brass gut, the hue and cry raised, the laughter and scorn heaped on the “zenana Indian Army” from both this and that side of the border.

Is the country prepared for all this? The General has spoken and the General knows better than what Ladies Finger, the digital feminist portal which ridicules him, will give him credit to. The Indian Army’s combative readiness is at stake and no feminist should be allowed to hold that to ransom just because another male bastion should fall. (IPA Service)