Leaders across parties welcome verdict

NEW DELHI: Politicians cutting across the party lines welcomed the Supreme Court (SC) judgment on permanent commission (PC) for women in the army on Monday.

Hailing the verdict, Union defence minister Rajnath Singh said the government was committed to strengthening “stree shakti” (women power) in the military. He added that the percentage of women in the armed forces has grown over the last three years.

“I wholeheartedly welcome the Supreme Court’s judgment on giving women officers PC in the armed forces. Prime Minister

Narendra Modi has supported the idea of PC for women and announced the change in policy in his Independence Day speech in 2018,” Singh said. There was no official reaction from the defence ministry or the army on the apex court’s judgment.

Singh said there were instances of women officers serving the military for nearly 20 years, even though the Short Service Commission (SSC) term ends in 14 years. “Before 2016, women made up just 2.5% of India’s armed forces, working in mainly non-combat roles. As of January 2019, 3.89% of army personnel comprised women, while 6.7% of the navy and 13.28% of the air force personnel, respectively, were women, as of June 2019,” he said.

He added that last year the defence ministry decided to grant women permanent commission in 10 branches of the army, including signals, intelligence, army aviation, engineers and army service corps. The army does not offer front-line combat roles to women.

The Congress, too, welcomed the verdict terming it a “victory” for every citizen who believed in equality bereft of sexes, and a “defeat” of the “myopic” thinking of the Narendra Modi government. In a Twitter post, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said: “The government disrespected every Indian woman, by arguing in the SC that women Army officers didn’t deserve command posts or permanent service because they were inferior to men.” Party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: “This is a victory for every citizen ... who believes in equality bereft of sexes. This is a defeat of the Modi government and its myopic thinking and thought process whereby it argued before the Supreme Court that men and women cannot be equal for combat roles, saying women are physically inferior.”

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat said the SC has upheld women’s right to equality.

“We welcome the judgement. For so many years women in the defence forces have been fighting for their constitutional right to equality, now the SC has upheld that right,” she said.