Should Army be used to tackle internal problems

Should Army be used to tackle internal problems

          Calling out the army for tackling internal problems to restore peace is not a healthy sign for democracy. The army's main role is to defend the country against external aggression and maintenance of territorial integrity. Similarly the police are responsible for maintaining law and order situation in the country. The roles of both the forces are well defined. Even when the law and order situation may get out of control the deployment of army is not beneficial in the long run. If the army is frequently used for internal problems, it means that they are over taxed. Their state of preparedness is adversely affected. The use of army for internal problems may lead to politicizing process. The Indian army is known for being apolitical. They are not supposed to kill their own citizens in the event of situation getting worse. They might use oppressive measures to bring the situation under control. Again, if the army is frequently used for restoring peace, it may lose the image of being impartial. It is often seen that army is used for suppressing communal riots, which is not a healthy practice. Army may be used when there is a situation arising out of natural disaster. There is no harm if they are engaged in humanitarian tasks. In fact militancy is a problem peculiar to India. The police are not suitably equipped to handle terrorists. Hence there is no harm if they are asked to participate in joint operations with the police in such cases. Therefore, army should not be frequently used for solving unimportant law and order situation. On the contrary the police should be made more efficient to tackle such situation. In ordinary course of life there is no justification to deploy army for internal peace.