An extraordinary moment in the role of the military in a democracy emerged in the US on Thursday when General Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, apologised for taking part in President Donald Trump’s walk across Lafayette Square for a photo-op after authorities used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear the area of peaceful protesters. The protests were against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“I should not have been there,” Gen. Milley, top US military officer, said in a pre-recorded video commencement address to the National Defense University. “My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.”

During Trump’s photo-op, federal authorities had attacked the protesters so that the President could hold up a Bible in front of St John’s Church.

The US general’s response is in sharp contrast with the controversies dogging the Indian military leadership which has of late been accused of making political statements.

In December at the height of the protests against the new citizenship regime, Gen. Bipin Rawat, then the Indian Army chief, had said: “Leaders are not those who lead people in inappropriate directions, as we are witnessing in a large number of university and college students, the way they are leading masses of crowds to carry out arson and violence in our cities and towns. This is not leadership.”

Later, unnamed army sources sought to control the damage by saying Rawat did not make any reference to the anti-CAA protests. Within a month, Rawat was made the first chief of defence staff of India, a post he continues to hold.