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Tweet by Swarnashree Rao Rajshekhar, principal spokesperson for defence ministry, has angered the military brass.

New Delhi: Spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence Swarnashree Rao Rajshekhar was sent on leave Friday evening for an unspecified period, hours after she tweeted to former Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash (retired) that military officers misuse privileges of rank.

The spokesperson for the Army, Colonel Aman Anand, has been asked to take over as the acting principal spokesperson for the ministry.

Rajshekhar’s continuance in the office had become untenable after her tweet even though she deleted it and said it was “inadvertently” done.

Sources in the ministry had told ThePrint Friday afternoon that Rajshekhar had angered even constituents and supporters of the BJP.

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Rajashekar — an officer from the Defence Accounts Service cadre who was appointed by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as the Additional Director General (Media and Communications) — is the principal spokesperson for the ministry. The task is usually assigned to an officer of the Indian Information Service.

Voices from within the establishment had questioned if she should continue.

BJP MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar who is actively involved in defence issues, tweeted:

U need to be more thn worst insensitive bureacrat to tweet like this – u need to be a world class IDIOT who shd be sent back to paperpushing or whtever his/her lifes achievement is so far n NOT destry goodwill n respect for PM n govt whch hs done so much for our Armed frces. https://t.co/ocEI2vaj9J — Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@rajeev_mp) October 26, 2018

But former Navy chief, Admiral Arun Prakash (retired) to whom Rajshekhar tweeted originally from her official handle before deleting it, had advised a more measured approach to the issue of rank parity between the civilian bureaucracy and the military brass.

Rather than getting excited over indiscreet tweet of @SpokespersonMoD I would suggest sober reflection; (a) by MoD on state of civil-mil relations & (b) by Military Leadership on the aspersions cast by MoD (IDAS?) civil-servant on personal conduct of Service officers. https://t.co/PwyMzzotK4 — Arun Prakash (@arunp2810) October 26, 2018

The tweet that sparked furore

On Friday morning, Rajashekar tweeted to Admiral Prakash (retired): “What about misuse of jawans in your residence during an officer’s tenure sir? And how about children being picked up and dropped to school in Fauji (military) gaadis (vehicles)? Not to forget Madam’s shopping expedition on government vehicles. And endless parties…who pays for that?”

The defence spokesperson said that the response to Prakash was tweeted “inadvertently”. She deleted the tweet and said she had tweeted by mistake and that her message was intended for a private group on a mobile messaging app.

The response was to a retweet by Prakash of a photograph that showed the Integrated Financial Advisor appointed to the Western Command of the Army (Chandimandir) that flashed a flag on the bonnet of an official car. Civilian officers are not entitled to the privilege that belongs to military rank flag officers (Major-General and above).

But even before the defence spokesperson could delete her tweet, the response to Prakash, a war hero and naval aviator, had ignited a firestorm with military veterans alleging that the defence spokesperson was mirroring the approach of the civilian bureaucracy towards the armed forces.

The spokesperson for Army headquarters said the Integrated inancial Advisor in Chandigarh was “authorized” by the Western Army Commander.

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Prakash said that even if the misuse of an Army command’s insignia by a civilian is not a cognisable offence, “the person needs to be reprimanded by the GOC-in-C (General Officer Commanding in Chief) whose financial adviser he is”.

Why the furore

The context of this morning’s spat is on equivalence in rank parity and financial benefits that the armed forces have been seeking. The Army, Navy and Air Force officers are aggrieved that they have not been granted Non-Functional Upgrade (NFU) that civilian bureaucrats enjoy.

NFU grants financial benefits to an officer after two years if a single person from his/her batch is promoted to a joint secretary (or equivalent) rank in the civilian bureaucracy. Integrated Financial Advisors at the level of the commands are not of the same rank. But commanders often try to keep them happy because the IFAs carry out audits of military expenditure.

Army Headquarters said the IFA in Chandigarh was asked Friday to remove the flag from his staff car after the photograph went viral.

The report has been updated to correct Internal Financial Advisor as Integrated Financial Advisor. The error is regretted.

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