ks_sachin wrote:I totally concur on the first point.
On the second point
- criticise definitely but sometime the language used is OTT (hashish etc etc!!!). Also sweeping generalisations without doing the required legwork...
- the level of being devalued is extremely palpable and men in uniform - both serving and retired - are extremely sensitive so we have to strive to get our point across but also at the same time not tar all of them with the same brush. I have not served but having lived in the services ethos when a poster says army is corrupt I get upset because to me it demeans all - and army is one part of the issue and cannot be looked at in isolation.
ultimately it is for members to decide whether they are willing to live some folks with actual experience but a bit of a thin skin - by tempering how we put our point across or burn them and live like frogs in a well.
I refer back to your first point - " As long as you are not insulting or verbally abusing someone, feel free to forcefully, but respectfully, disagree"
- would you agree that this is more honoured in the breach that its observance...
Sachin Saar, we need to stop being wusses and cry hoarse for every little thing that we feel hurts our sensitivities. I fully agree that terms like hashish and sweeping generalizations are made - I will be the first to admit that I am guilty of that. But the amazing thing about BRF is that folks will call each other out when they know people are peddling nonsense. That is the way it should be. No one should be allowed to get away with speaking nonsense - me included. And we have some SUPER smart people on BRF. I am not going to list names, but it is a long list.
On the issue of the forces and men in uniform. I do not see - I am willing to be corrected on this - how what someone says on an internet forum bears any effect on his / her duties as a military professional or on his / her psyche. The current opposition in India says far worse! Military personnel have bullets whizzing past them, but they are more hurt by what I say on a forum? If my assessment is incorrect, then may Allah help my country. Because it is surely doomed. However, if someone is maliciously maligning a serving or retired personnel's integrity, then by all means that person should be tarred and feathered. The current crop of admins we have now are all par excellence and they do their job without malice or vendetta.
But I do not see anything wrong in a BRFite criticizing the Armoured Corps for dropping the ball on the Arjun tank or the Air Force for not inducting the HAL Tejas in larger numbers. The Armed Forces are a public institution and thus they are and should be open to criticism. Otherwise, we will end up like Pakistan and start believing fantasy tales like
one Pakistani soldier is equal to 10 Indians. Is that what we want? Barring a few bad apples, no is criticizing the soldier on the ground but rather his Boss. I am sorry, but the Army has to answer for the Arjun fiasco. We cannot be accused of being insensitive or (even worse) being anti-national just because we dare to question the Boss.
We need to separate the wheat from the chaff. So if someone says the army is curropt, the poster surely does not mean every army man / woman is corrupt. I am sorry, but I will not buy that logic. I believe the poster intends to say certain elements in the army are corrupt, but that is not what came out. So that is where someone like you should correct him. Now if he continues to believe that and continues to post like that, then he is trolling. So then he needs to go.
And by valued members NOT posting, they are performing a dis-service by allowing nonsense to be peddled without any rebuttal.
P.S. I say this without sarcasm and shame, but please translate this into SIMBLE engleesh for me...
- would you agree that this is more honoured in the breach that its observance...