MANN KI BAATH’ OF SERVICEMEN AND VETERANS ONE RANK ONE PENSION

MANN KI BAATH’ OF SERVICEMEN AND VETERANS Lt Gen PG Kamath Retd) I think it was FDR who started his ‘Fireside Chats’ to the American people during the Great War. It was his way of connecting with people. Our Prime Minister also connects with the people through his ‘Mann ki Baath’. It is an excellent way to keep the nation informed of his musings. In the recent Broadcast he dwelt on OROP (One Rank One Pension) and he said his Government is committed in implementing it , however it is complicated and he was not aware of its complexity before becoming the Prime Minister. It also imputes that he was not aware of its complexity even after becoming the Prime Minister when he addressed the soldiers in Siachen, last Diwali. Mr Prime Minister! Remember that a simple issue can be made complicated, confusing and complex by your bureaucrats, whose shenanigans to manipulate politicians is an axiom; notwithstanding he could be PM Modi, himself? It suffice to say that the PM has been led down the garden path. The Ministry could give an inflated figure and the CGDA in cahoots with the Ministry could further inflate the figure so that the PM is overwhelmed. Second they would say the myriad of para military organisations would demand and the PM would be in intractable situation, from where he would not be able wriggle out of the self-created imbroglio? Thirdly they would say outright lies telling that the Armed Forces are better paid that anyone else in the country invoking rations, Canteen services, ECHS, Special Forces Allowance and High Altitude Allowance, to disallow OROP. Lastly they would get the IB to give false reports that the Para Military Forces would be demoralised? I hope the country remembers as to how PM Vajpayee was made to buckle to the Terrorists in Kandahar Hijacking. He was made to believe that the entire countrymen were with hostages and not with the nation. PM Vajpayee’s portrayed the country as a soft state and lost his stature. Coming back to OROP; It would be indeed difficult for an half informed politicians to question these arguments as the bureaucrats prevaricate. They do not give the whole picture. They pit the disadvantages of Plan A with advantages of Plan B. They show respect bordering on servility that makes the politician believe that the man is sincere, loyal and honest. To show that they are not one sided they would throw a flimsy argument in between to support Plan A so that the argument is worthy of outright rejection. Mr PM, if you are not careful you can be trodden over and bureaucrats will claim victory over you in their private confabulations with their breed. They would tell bureaucrats of other ministries, the trade secret to overwhelm you. They would boost your ego, appear servile and loyal and make you lose your innate sagacity and your earthly wisdom and make you think like them as they have done it with you on OROP. Few facts that you need to know: it was the triumvirate of UPA Chairman , the then PM and the then RM who are basically responsible for destroying morale of the Armed Forces thus posing a grave danger to the nation. It was the time the CRPF otherwise a greenhorn in Counter Insurgency Warfare was getting massacred by Maoists in 2009/12 and the then Home Minister Chidambaram in order to boost their morale was heaping them with allowances far in excess to the Armed Forces. Mr PM just go through a slew of allowances which the PMF under the Home Ministry is getting . It is not double or treble of those received by Armed Forces. Just close your eyes and keep your mouth gaping; it is ten times more? An armed forces instructor in NDC gets ₹ 1800 per month and equivalents in police and civil service get ₹ 19000 per month.1 I am just giving one example but Mr Prime Minister; please ask for all the allowances that others get that is not given to armed Forces. Just to give you one more example; Indian Army Paratrooper gets ₹ 800 to 1200 per month; whereas parachute trained police COBRA battalion personnel get ₹ 7200 to 11000 per month.2 The grant of enhanced allowance in isolation to PMF and the possible adverse effect on the morale of the Armed Forces was not considered by your bureaucrats then? Wasn’t it simple enough? It was simple to deprive the armed forces the comparative increases and how easily they flagrantly disregarded the adverse effect on their morale? It was simply done and the issue was not complex then? Complexity has risen only for OROP? Next Mr PM we take the Sixth Pay Commission, where rank discrimination was practised and perfected on the Armed Forces. Non Functional Up-gradation (NFU) has been given to all; I repeat all Central Government Officers of all hues: Bureaucrats, Border Roads, MES, Postal Service, all Para Military Forces, IAS, IPS, Defence Accounts, Defence Estate and a host of allied services working in the Central Government. A single organisation that is ‘The Armed Forces of Indian Union’ alone have been excluded. Mr PM can you believe it? Has none of your servile bureaucrats have told how easily this was done without any complexities? How were the Armed Forces discriminated? The Armed Forces are being deprived of NFU for the past 10 years. Thousands of servicemen in the past decade have gone on retirement at a lower grade and corresponding lower pay and pension? How simply it was done? Were there no complications then? Mr PM how was the Anomaly Commission under Cabinet Secretary tasked by the then PM on 18 Jul 2012 to give its recommendation before 8 Aug 2012 so that he could announce from the ramparts of Red Fort was scuttled. There were 39 anomalies given by the Armed Forces where the Sixth Pay Commission had discriminated them. The Armed Forces are still languishing with these unresolved anomalies and suffer the ignominy of being discriminated by its own government. How simply this was done? Why did not any IB give a report of the anger in the Armed Forces for this gross injustice? Lastly; Mr PM have they not told you maximum ranks in Armed Forces retire at the age of 35to37 years, thus tearing them asunder from their organisation at the prime of their adulthood. In contrast all the Para Military Organisation and bureaucrats and even a peon who stands outside your office retires at 60 years? Who will compensate for it. All civilian counterparts serve for 35 to 40 years, and retire correspondingly on higher pay and pension. You throw a soldier out on the streets after 17 years of service at the age of 35 to 37, when his family and social needs are maximum. He has to eke out his livelihood for next 35 to 40 years of life in educating and settling his children, besides looking after his wife and himself in old age. All that the soldiers are asking you to grant them OROP to partly alleviate their financial distress for the most peculiar condition of service that is applicable to the Armed Forces alone. I can understand UPA not doing it as the triumvirate who ran the country were indeed odd? We had the UPA Chairman from whom the Armed Forces could not expect much as her provenance being what it is, national security was not her priority? You need to excuse her as she was busy anointing her son and financially rejuvenating her son in law. With such onerous tasks at hand it was difficult for her concentrate on other flimsy issues such as the Security of the nation. Next, we have is the then Prime Minister, the prize exhibit of Madame Tussauds, who could walk by itself but nothing else. The third was the then RM, the arch destroyer of Armed Forces of Indian Union. He being at the helm for eight years was one of the greatest asset to our adversaries. Even PM Nawaz Sherif and President Ji Xi could not have done a better job had they been the RM of India. He carved out the hollowness in the Armed Forces and destroyed its fighting capacity. I don’t intend to talk of our depleted Air Force and the Navy on life support system. He also destroyed the morale of the Armed Forces by not speaking a word in support of the A