In fact, such distrust ensured that civil bureaucracy, say defence secretary, went on to command more attention of political leadership than the Army chief. A new government’s willingness to let defence brass have some voice in official meetings as well as a public forum is challenging that tradition, it’s knee-jerk to see it as something essentially undemocratic. So, for instance, when an army chief says that forces are prepared for a ‘two- and-a-half-front war’, far from being a statement of war-mongering, it’s a confidence-inspiring statement that people would like to have about the defence preparedness of their military against obvious dangers to country’s external and internal security. If the democratically-elected government of the day doesn’t see it as a breach of Army chief’s brief, it’s undemocratic (even in the Nehruvian sense of decision-making) to tell the country’s top army officer what to avoid saying. One may also be aware of the fact that General Rawat has qualified his remarks about recommending Bharat Ratna for Field Marshal Cariappa by saying that ultimately the decision has to come from the Union government.