Dear Mr Defence Minister,
I am once writing to you on an old subject, which is not getting resolved, despite your best efforts. I was out of the country for 18 days, but thanks to NDTV and my iPad I was aware of the happening on the OROP front. Got fully briefed on the latest when I visited Jantar Mantar yesterday. It must be the first time that ESM in any country have sat on a fast for 75 days to get what was promised by the PM himself on several occasions and has been accepted by the previous and the current governments.
As I said at the rally soldiers are expected to make the enemy die for his country but it is saddening that our own government expects us to undertake fasts unto death before we can get our legitimate entitlements, which have been approved by two governments and by the Supreme Court! The Deputy Attorney General has been giving repeated assurances in the Supreme Court that that OROP will be sanctioned within weeks, and later within days. Rather embarrassing for a government whose top man had bowed low towards the ESM at Rewari in Sep 13 and promised OROP within 100 days, once his government was formed! I was a witness to it I was in the row just behind him.
The ESM who have undertaken an indefinite fast have been left no option but to take this extreme step on behalf of their comrades. It must be remembered that there has been no violence by the ESM, unlike others who put up demands to the government which, at times, are untenable but governments cave in. The latest example being the mayhem happening in Ahmedabad. But despite that violence was let loose on the ESM a day before Independence Day. Ironical that those who protect the nation are set upon by the police, obviously on someones orders. Shameful indeed. The culprits responsible must be taken to task.
I would now like to give you a litany of all the injustices that have been meted out to the defence forces over the years ie since I got my commission in Dec 52, 63 years ago.
- a) In 1950 a special commission was setup to fix the salaries of the Services. Officers, other than KCIOs, had to accept a cut in their salaries which was not applicable to civil servants. Lt Gen Sinha, an ex Governor has written about it. Then, while the Service officers were given an increment of Rs 50 every two years, the civilians fixed Rs 25 pa for themselves. Thus taking home Rs 300 extra every alternate years. The fact is that the soldiers who had just snatched J&K back from Pakistan were taken for a ride because they trusted the government to look after them. (Reminds one of Chanakya)
- b) When I was commissioned the bulk of IAS, IPS and defence officers used to retire as deputy secretary, SSP or Lt Col and a small proportion used to go further, as it should be in a service based on meritocracy. Look at the spectacle now in the civil services wherein merit has been given the go by and every one who gets in just keeps getting promoted by time scale, without any filtering. Only the armed forces still select only the best in the available pool of officers, JCOs and Jawans. No wonder the governance in the country is not to be proud of while, the Services earn a good name be it in peace or war. No wonder they are despised by peers in other services. We are from the same stock but the results are quite different.
- c) In early 1950s India sent its first peace keeping contingent to Gaza and thereafter many more of them have gone and earned kudos for the country. No one knows that the soldier gets only a third of the daily allowance that the UNO pays for each soldier. The government pockets most of it and earns out of the sweat and blood the soldier sheds, as it goes into the consolidated. fund!
- d) As per the recently written history of 1965 Indo-Pak war India annexed more territory and caused more casualties on the enemy and did great damage to its war making ability. But how were the soldiers rewarded? The IAS and IPS upgraded themselves in precedence and pay and in 1970 all government services were given a raise on the sly. We got it in 1971/72, when we learned about it. While a soldier got Rs 50 to !50 as high altitude allowance while living in a bunker at 13,000 to 15,000ft above msl the civil servant living in a bungalow with family, in Towang or Bomdila collected 25% of his pay as "Inner Line Allowance".
- e) In 1971 the armed forces gave a gift to the country by splitting Pakistan into two countries, and captured over 90,000 POWs. The 3rd CPC made a major democratic move in 1973! JCOs & OR who were getting 70% and officers 50% of last pay drawn as pension were all brought on par with the civil servants who had been drawing 33% as pension. Once again they benefited themselves without any equivalent improvement for the soldiers.
- f) In 1972 soon after the war was over the state governments issued letters that Deputy Commissioner will henceforth be senior to Brigadiers and Chief Secretaries will be senior in their own states to Army Commanders, who were responsible for law and order and disaster relief in 4 to 6 states. So the Annual civil- military conferences which were held at Army Command HQ since decades became a joke, because if one CS did not attend no one else came!
- g) In 1975 I was posted to our Embassy in France in the rank of a Colonel, with local rank of Brigadier to enable me to meet equivalent officers of the host country. On arriving their I found that there was a MEA letter which fixed the Foreign Allowance (FA), equivalent of DA in India, based on the slab your pay fell in. Though my pay was in the slab applicable to counselors, I was told that as per a MOD letter an arbitrary equivalence had been laid down. So I was given the FA of a First Secretary, who was in the next lower slab. I spoke to the Ambassador about it and he found out that a committee of secretaries is considering the matter. The decision did not come in my three years there! I believe that this unjust equation has been now formalised by the MEA.
- h) The 4th CPC was a disaster as Maj AK Dhanapalan found out that the bureaucracy has cunningly taken the rank pay out of the pay and called it a gift to the officers. It took over a decade to rectify it through the orders of the Supreme Court and another half a decade to implement it.
- j) 49 anomalies were put up by the Services after the 5th CPC. A committee was formed under the defence secretary, Mr Ajit Kumar. He ruminated over them for 4 years and produced a zero. While the demands of the civil servants were agreed to because they had threatened a strike.
- k) The 6th CPC was a fiasco. The number of cases that were filed after it must be a record. The Dept of Ex Servicemen Welfare fought tooth and nail against the veterans in the Supreme Court and delayed the out come for years. But even after losing the cases the implementation of the judgements was delayed. The cussedness is mind boggling. Only a couple of months ago the Supreme Court threw out over 800 cases contested by DESW on frivolous grounds. The government is quite happy wasting money on indefensible legal cases to deny veterans Rs400 to 800 pm, which is legitimately due to them, and still no one is held accountable.
- l) In 1973 I was a Lt Col, GSO1 in the Division HQ in Ahmedabad and used to deal with the IG police Mr Pant, brother in law of Gen GG Bewoor, the then COAS. Now even the Commissioner Police, Ahmedabad wears badges of a Lt Gen. Wonder who the GOC of the Division deals with. The seeker of help must now be wanting the GOC to come to him.
Sir, accountability is the biggest casualty in our country's administration. IAS, IPS, IRS, IDAAS, DRDO, DGOF, PWD are big drain holes which are not being plugged, while the most efficient organisation of the country is being stifled and humiliated. Why? Is their efficiency their only failing, as others are shown up in bad light? So every one gangs up to deny them their dues. Could it also be that the others are party to the crimes they commit/cover up in league with our political masters and so get a free hand to plunder the coffers of the nation, while the powerless suffer? It does need a detailed study.
Mr Minister, I do not envy your job as in your tenure, despite your best efforts to look after the interests of the soldier, he has been alienated from the government. This includes the leaders ie officers ,JCOs and NCOs and the men behind the guns. He is aware as to what is in store for him once he sheds his uniform, not that he is looked after while in service. Nitin Gokhale has produced a comparative chart, which I sent to you, as to how the civil servants, including policemen, garner perks while grudging our free rations, free(?) canteen services and rum in high altitude areas. Would they like to exchange places?
You may not be aware that even before the CPCs recommended the lateral absorption of soldier retirees in CAPFs, Lt Gen Balaram had carried out a study in early 1980s as to how to reduce the pension burden and suggested lateral movement of soldiers. But the police resisted it saying that the culture of soldiers and policemen differs and so rejected the suggestion. Obviously it would have upset the recruitment industry on which so many officers and netas depend. Two politicians are in jail for this offence when many more should have joined them for similar misdemeanours. Obviously no one wants possible whistle blowers in their midst. Even without them the IAS, IPS, PWD and the like are daily in the news for some unpleasant reason or the other.
I regret to say that the serving and the retired soldiers are sorely disappointed with the government , from whom much more was expected. I was surprised that the Home Minister (with due regards to him as he is doing well for his portfolio) was involved with OROP negotiations, when he should have been worrying about his problems if one of the soldiers on hunger strike dies! For the soldiers after the RM it is the PM who is their boss.The PM seems to be seeing his Gujrat model unravelling in front of his eyes. He must also be noticing the difference when soldiers protest and when civilians do the same. It took one days protest to torch a hundred buses, 50 police stations and half a dozen politicians houses while, the soldiers have been protesting for over 75 days without any inconvenience to any one. Still they got the stick from the police on someone's order.
Sir, something drastic needs to be done urgently otherwise this country will go down the tube even though it has such potential. How can it become a super power when the fist in the velvet glove is bruised and bleeding.
With sincere regards.
Lt Gen SK Bahri PVSM (Retd)
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