Dear Mr Defence Minister,
This mail should have been a thank you letter but as is their age old practice, our bureaucracy has to muddy the waters and make every occasion controversial. I have no idea why the term VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme) was introduced in your speech yesterday, when there is no such term in the Services lingo. Yes, this term is used by PSUs who try to reduce their manpower to make them more efficient and give the volunteers a financial incentive. No such incentive is given to defence personnel seeking premature retirement (PMR). The trouble is that the babus in the MOD have no loyalty to their charges and their Minister. They are hand in glove with their counterparts in the Finance Ministry. It is a mafia which is totally against the defence services, even at the cost of the nation's security. They have done so previously also, after the 6th CPC when they slyly changed two words in the CPC award to deny soldiers who had retired prior to 1 Jan 2006, their dues. We had to fight a six year legal fight and get the mischief corrected.
Premature retirement is a very useful tool to ensure that people who have no chances for advancement can go out, rather than becoming unhappy members of a fighting force. Their going to the civil sector keeps the armed forces young and indirectly introduces a disciplined work force wanting to prove its worth in a new work environment. There have been proposals to give the civil services a two year stint in the armed forces but has been resisted by them as they do not want to experience the hard life of the soldiers.
This 'steel frame' is only interested in feathering their nests in league with other services. The PM is trying his best to take the country on the path of development but, unless he dismantles this self serving 'frame', he will not be able to live up to his promises. I daresay, the FM is a party to the effort of scuttling OROP by introducing frustrating clauses like the one mentioned on TV this morning that soldiers who have taken PMR will have to submit claims to get their OROP dues. Is it another way of causing dissension among the ESM against the government. I have requested the interlocutors of UFESM to accept the assurance of the PM and suspend all hunger strikes and in turn request you to resolve the remaining issues within a given time frame. There is a feeling among commentators that the government is taking this palliative action so that NDA's election campaign in Bihar is not affected. Please prove them wrong.
But I would request you to take some urgent action against this so called 'steel frame' as it is doing great damage to the country.
With warm regards
Lt Gen SK Bahri PVSM (Retd)
[TriservicesIndia] 09 Sep 2015
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