Army chief General Bipin Rawat, while addressing annual press conference, said that the Indian army won’t allow homosexual soldiers in the force. “We will not allow this to happen in the Army,” said General Rawat. The General added that: Indian Army has own laws on homosexuality.
“We are not above the country’s law but when you join the Indian Army, some of the rights and privileges you enjoy are not what we have. Some things are different for us,” he said.
A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court in last September had decriminalised a part of the British era law under Section-377 of the Indian Penal Code which banned sexual relationships between same-sex humans.
#WATCH Army Chief General Bipin Rawat holds annual press conference in Delhi https://t.co/mdXiZZYCth
— ANI (@ANI) January 10, 2019
“We can’t allow it to perpetrate into the Army,” he said. The Supreme Court has cleared out Section-377 of the IPC which put an end to homosexual relationships. The country had welcomed the verdict, but army chief General Bipin Rawat was quite clear on the statement.
Women are not fit for combat roles in the army, says Indian Army Chief
Army Chief General Bipin Rawat’s statement sparked outrage after he remarked about the combat roles shouldn’t be performed by women in the army. In a recent interview with News18, General Rawat said that women are not fit for combat roles in the Indian army. He even listed the reasons why women are not suitable or fit for combat roles in the army.
He said adding that even if he was ready to admit female officers on the frontline, but the army was not. Explaining clearly about the statement, he said that most of the jawans come from villages and they may not accept a woman commanding them.
One more reason was that women would feel discomfort at the frontline and accuse the jawans of ‘watching’ at them while they will change clothes. Post that, he said that the woman could also lose life in the tough combat roles and the country was not ready to look at their bodies returning from the war zone.
Another reason was that when women get pregnant, the army will not be able to give them ‘6 months of maternity leave’.
