Indian army’s WhatsApp hotline to army chief General Bipin Rawat was filled by spam messaged by Pakistanis who are using it to abuse India and the army. The number received around 30, 000 messages among which most of them were from Pakistan.
The WhatsApp number, +91 9643300008 was launched by Rawat on January 28 to redress the grievances of soldiers after a BSF soldier, Tej Bahadur Yadav shared a video on social media complaining about the food problems.
In the video posted, Yadav said that though the centre provides funds for the army’s expenses but the senior officials pose a hurdle in its usage. After the video went viral, it was told that the army officials were working on these problems. The discussion heated up on Primetime when more videos related to exploitation and other issues were posted on social media by Army, IAF and central police forces.
This number was then issued so that the soldiers can express their problems directly to the army chief rather than posting on social media. But after the number was flooded with spam messages, all Pakistani numbers related to it have been blocked since then.
There is an existing system of grievance redressal within the Army which is prompt but in case a soldier has exhausted all grievance redressal forums and is still not happy, he may contact the Army chief's office through the new number.
