Following the brouhaha over Lt. Sushmita Chakraborty's suicide and allegations of gender bias in the Army, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has today said that "women officers could be considered for combat roles in the future depending on their willingness to undergo hard training".
Questions: Is this damage-control by the UPA government or are women really capable of assuming combat roles on a par with men? Are women really capable of doing any work, or is Mukherjee's move a sign of political correctness running riot? Are women physically built to handle a rifle, face the enemy and fire fearlessly? Or are we making a great and good organisation a hostage of gender equality?
Also see: The silliness of Sushma Swaraj
churumuri 
If women can undergo hard training and be willing to go into combat, why should the question arise if they can fire fearlessly? Look at the women in the armies of the Naxalites, the LTTE, and even in legitimate armies like the US Army, Iranian Army, Palestinian Army…
Hostage of gender equality? Women might not be able to do it like the men, but who says that is the only way? Why should it be that women have to compete with men, or be compared to the ability of men? Why should that be the yardstick to establish courage and dedication?
Do all men get asked if they are fearless before they join the army? Can anyone vouch that they are indeed so? Don’t many of them join the army because it is another source of employment?
Granted that this could be a desperate damage control move, but isn’t it about time? Doesn’t the army need to modernise in every sense and move along with the world, giving up feudal notions about the place of man and woman in society as the protector and the nurturer?
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Look IMHO , if the vice chief of Army has made a comment on the suitability there has to be some thought behind it , we just cant start the Jingoism of gender inequality and beat the same old drums. I think that the officer who has risen so high in the ranks would have had some concrete basis for such a statement.
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Right indeed. Dont compare our women to the naxalites and the suicide bombers. And believe me, you wouldn’t want your sister to be like the lady recruits of the US or the Israel. Let them remain in the admin services and let the men do the fighting.
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