Indian Army to win the trust of Kashmiri people announces various people-centric goodwill measures and gestures

Indian Army again proved that it is not just a strong army but also a moral army, which keeps human rights and ethics as its highest moral. Though the international press, some sections of domestic media, and intellectuals paint it as the worst abuser of human rights data is never presented to prove it. Isolated incidents of human rights violations are blown up and used exponentially to tarnish the entire army’s image, even though such cases are always dealt with strictly in the military courts. At the same time, people-friendly initiatives of the army are never highlighted the numerous Sainik schools constructed, the army helping people in times of flood and harsh snow, etc.

Notwithstanding such allegations the army, today announced a slew of steps to win the hearts of the Kashmiri public. The flag of the military convoys will be changed from the current red to blue. According to psychology red color has a more intimidating impact on humans which warns of something dangerous. People tend to associate red with negative, danger-bearing emotions. Blue according to psychology is a non-threatening color that represents peace, tranquillity, security, reliability, and order. Also, the trucks of the convoy will carry banners with festival greetings and other goodwill quotes with a background of the local scenic places to the Kashmiri people.

Speaking to ANI, Lieutenant Colonel Q Khan said, “the flags on the military convoys moving with troops from different locations in and out of the Kashmir valley have been changed to blue from red while the walls on the cantonments are proposed to have the pictures of young achievers from Kashmir.”

At stopovers and check posts, whistles will be used instead of lathis and officers have been instructed to adopt more people-friendly behavior. Human rights organizations like Amnesty have for long accused the army and paramilitary forces of being aggressive and harsh to the public at checkpoints and also have pointed repeatedly to how military convoys disrupt local traffic. The army using these measures has done a commendable job to end it, despite the risks it will pose to it. In the past checkpoints and convoys have been low-hanging fruit for the radical Islamic terrorists to target but the Indian army being a moral army has again put the interests of the public before its self.

To help curb the menace of radicalization among the youth the army has launched “Chai Pe Guftagu “through which army officers will interact with the youth of remote villages to help them with their education and give career advice. Also, the army helps the villagers to take up local problems like sanitation and infrastructure to higher authorities. This initiative gives a good opportunity for the forces to connect and build friendships with the local populace.