‘To have peace you must
have intimate friends or outright enemies’ is wisdom from the ages. And I am
recollecting it here in the context of our nation and its relationship with its
soldiers.
Soldiers do have an
outright enemy only during wars. And they haven’t had one since 1971. So, their
peace, when not at war, necessarily depend on intimate friends. And here is the
rub.
Since 2014, every year
during Diwali, the prime Minister of the Nation does religiously take time out
to be with soldiers, sharing sweets with them, exuding care and bonhomie. But
it is time some hard questions were asked: will the soldier who is fed sweets
with the Prime Minister’s own hands be able to spend enough quality time with
his family? Will he be able to send his children to good schools? Will he be
able to provide enough security to his family back in his village while he is
securing the nation in the most difficult terrains under the most trying
conditions? The answer is a big no.
Even in peace locations, a
soldier hardly gets family accommodation for about a year. And once his
children start going to school, he has no choice but to forego even this little
facility because of the problems of getting admission even in Kendriya
Vidhyalayas, if ever they are available both at his place of posting and within
accessible distance from his village.
Even these problems fade
into insignificance when compared to the prospect of loss of employment (read,
livelihood) when his commitments are at its peak, when he is in his thirties.
Till a few years back he
used to get recruited at 16-17 years of age and serve for 15-17 years. The
minimum age of recruitment was raised to 18 years only because of human rights
considerations which barred non-adults from bearing arms.
The proposal to re-employ
them in civil, after a pre-release training cum reorientation, has been in the
pipeline for ages but has not moved an inch from that stage, in all these
years. This is one of the four requirements that has been projected by the
Indian Ex Services Movement, spearheading the protest at Jantar Mantar since
2008.
Though currently only One
Rank, One Pension (OROP) is making the headlines, the three other proposals
include- re employment of released soldiers till 60 years of age, a Commission
for the welfare of veteran soldiers on the lines of Women’s Commission, SC/ST
Commission and Minority Commission and including representatives of veteran
soldiers in all bodies dealing with veteran’s affairs.
While it is difficult to
imagine why these simple proposals cannot be implemented, it is totally
impossible to reconcile with the injustices perpetrated on soldiers, who, it
can be said unequivocally, are the only ones who really perform their job on a
do or die basis.
It all had begun with India’s
first Prime Minister, Nehru, who believed that the nation got its freedom
through ahimsa and we could do without an army, at least not more than a
ceremonial one. He did not even learn any lesson from the military operations
in J&K in 1947-48. When the then C-in-C, Gen Butcher, had approached him
with a security plan for the newly independent nation, he had reportedly been
dismissive. Gen Butcher put in his papers and returned to Britain.
And then came the debacle
in 1962, when China just walked in up to Tezpur in the eastern sector and
walked off. Our soldiers deployed on those borders were not even properly
clothed, leave alone equipped and armed. Many died after resisting till the
last man, last bullet. More died due to inclement weather.
Many army officers got
court martialed. The Defense Minister resigned. But nothing has been heard of
the then Defense Secretary, who even now is officially responsible for the defense
of the nation. Videos are viral on social media of how Nehru failed to even use
the available Air Force to stop the aggressors in their tracks.
Her father’s trauma
prevented Indira Gandy from repeating the mistake in 1971. She had wanted the
then Chief of Army Staff, General S H F J Manekshaw, to resolve the Bangladesh
crisis militarily in April that year. As Manekshaw himself repeated many times
later, he had assured her of certain defeat then. He had even told her he would
opt to resign than get the army into a no-win situation. The rest is history.
But politicians would
eulogize Indira as Durga and condemn the soldier who crafted the historical
victory. Sam, as he was popularly known as, was given the rank of a Field
Marshal but denied the pay and perks that went with it. The arrears were given
to him in his deathbed, on the intervention of the then President of India, Dr
A P J Abdul Kalam in 2007.
Manekshaw is the only
officer of the Indian Armed Forces who had been given the 5-star rank while in
service. The other two were K M Cariappa, the first Indian Commander in Chief
of free India, who was given the rank of Field Marshal in 1986, 33 years after
his retirement and Arjan Singh Aulakh was given the rank of Marshal of the Air
Force in 2002, 33 years after he had demitted the office of the Chief of Air
Staff in 1969.
Since Field Marshals and their
equivalents hold the office for life, they are entitled to pay and perks of
that rank and not pension. But it took the government 36 years to take a
decision on this. But even then, it was limited to the pay equivalent to the
Service Chiefs only. (https://www.outlookindia.com/newswire/story/manekshaw-gets-cheque-of-rs-116-crore-for-back-wages/466337,
18 Apr 2007) And therein lies another rub.
The Service Chiefs were
held equivalent to the Cabinet Secretary. (In the Warrant of Precedence, 2007,
the Cabinet Secretary is at Serial 11 while the Service Chiefs are at Serial
12) But there is no military officer of the rank of Field Marshal or equivalent
figuring in that list. (https://soldier2ndlife.com/card/order-of-precedence).
So,
if a Field Marshal or equivalent must be placed in the list it will necessarily
have to be at Ser 11 or above. And this would not be acceptable to the bureaucrats.
It is the same reason why General Bipin Rawat has been appointed as the first
Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) in the same rank as the Chief of Army Staff.
General Bipin Rawat has been a disaster for the morale of
the soldiers ever since he superseded two officers and took over as the Chief
of Army Staff. Even when the share of defense expenditure as a share of GDP had
reduced to 2 percent, the level as in 1962, and defense preparedness had been
languishing, he had been indulging in pettifogging on issues like free rations
for officers in peace stations, taxing disability pension of soldiers etc.
Now, as in 1962, it was left to the Chinese to wake up both
the bureaucrats and the politicians from their slumber. Post Galvan, there is a
spree on buying, off the shelf, items from personal arms and winter clothing to
high altitude tents and drones at seller decided prices.
Even amidst this alarming situation, threatening the very
integrity of the nation, and the debilitating pandemic, the office of the CDS
has found time to move a proposal to increase the retirement age for soldiers,
including officers up to the rank of Colonel, to 57 years, with the rider that
the pension of those who opt to retire earlier will be reduced proportionately.
The proposal is to give only 50 percent of ENTITLED pension to those who opt to
retire after 20 years of service, with 35 years of service needed to get full
pension.
The absurdity of the proposal needs no elaboration. The
point is that as it stands the entitled pension is 50 percent of the last pay
drawn. And if you retire at a lower rank or with lesser service you get only 50
percent of the pay you have drawn in that rank and with that service. Now it is
this low pension that is sought to be further reduced by up to 50 percent.
There is a piece of information that has gained ground after
the veterans were forced to take to open form of protest at Jantar Mantar in
2008. That is, post 1971 ops, when the 3rd Central Pay Commission
(CPC) awards were implemented the pension of soldiers, which had been 70
percent of his last pay drawn (rightly so, because of his early age of
retirement and no prospect for gainful employment thereafter) had been reduced
to 50 percent on the ground of economic hardship. But unknown to most soldiers,
except may be to those at the top level of the hierarchy, the pension of
civilians had been hiked from 33 percent to 50 percent. But that was not all.
Full pension (50 percent of last pay drawn) would be available only to those
who complete 33 years of service. In effect, most soldiers who retired as
sepoys with 15 years of service, got only less than 25 percent of their last
pay as pension. And this was the genesis of the OROP movement.
Lieutenant Colonel Inderjit Singh (who passed away recently)
was the first one to sit on a hunger strike at India Gate on 22 Feb 1982,
demanding OROP. Even when the bureaucrats said, ‘over my dead body’, Mrs Indira
Gandy had agreed to the demand but failed to fulfill it. All the governments
that followed promised to implement it but ultimately ditched the soldiers. Not
only was OROP not implemented, the status and compensation given to those who
had taken an oath to give up their lives in the line of their duty, were
systematically brought down with every pay commission.
The 4th CPC had introduced a running pay scale
for officers from Captains to Brigadiers and given an additional rank pay to
compensate for different ranks. The bureaucrats while fixing the new pay
reduced the rank pay from the newly fixed pay and then gave the rank pay,
effectively denying the rank pay. An officer, Major Dhanapalan, working on the
new pay for civilians in Military Engineering Service, brought it to the notice
of the then CoAS, General K Sundarji who simply snubbed him. It was in 1998
when Dhanapalan got posted to Kochi he could approach the High Court and demand
his dues. While he got a favorable verdict at the High Court, the Central
Government went to the Supreme Court. Finally, Dhanapalan got all his dues.
Based on the Dhanapalan verdict many groups of officers
approached the high courts for similar relief. The apex court got all the cases
pooled together and gave a verdict in favor of the officers. But many appeals,
revisions and Special Leave Petitions later, almost a decade after, the court
succumbed to the pleas of the government and directed that the arrears from 01
Jan 1986 to 31 Dec 2005 need not be paid and only the arrears from 01 Jan 2006
to be paid with a simple interest of 6 percent.
Now look at how the bureaucrats and politicians (MLAs, MPs
and ministers) have given themselves OROP.
While for all the lower levels there is a scale of pay with
annual increments, at the top there is only fixed pay for the bureaucrats. This
ensures that all the bureaucrats who retire at those levels automatically get
the same pension, always. And in IAS, almost all direct recruits retire at the
level of Secretaries to the Govt of India or their equivalent.
The 6th CPC in 2006 introduced another bizarre
scheme- Non-Functional Financial Upgradation NFFU)- for the bureaucrats of the
IAS and IPS cadres. By this any member of a batch getting promoted anywhere in
India would entitle all the members of that batch to get the same pay and perks
irrespective of their current tasking. Now, interestingly, even though the
other Group A services also pass through the same process of recruitment, even
the members of the IPS got only 2nd rate treatment in that they got
the same status and perks only 2 years after their parallel batchmate in the
IAS.
The 7th CPC has extended this NFFU to all Group A
cadres. Military officers, who should, logically, be the only ones eligible for
such a privilege because of the steeple pyramid nature of their structure and
dearth of vacancies at the top, have been denied this simply because they are a
class apart and do not come under the classification of Group A.
For the MLAs, MPs and ministers, there is no minimum service
required to be eligible for pension. For example, as per information received
under the RTI Act in 2013, an MP who has served for ANY period is entitled to
Rs 20,000/- as pension from 18/5/2009. After 5 years, he is entitled to
additional Rs 1500/- for every extra year of service. And this system has been
in vogue since 09/09/1976.
Similarly, in Kerala, the MLAs were eligible for a minimum
pension of Rs 6000/- for LESS THAN 2 years of service and full pension of Rs
10,000/- on completion of a full term of 5 years. Thereafter, for every year or
part thereof, they get a fixed amount as additional pension.
Interestingly, while Rs 129,094,352/- (approximately 13
crores) had been paid as pension/family pension to 3857 MPs/family pensioners,
during Dec 2012-Feb 2013, an amount of Rs 2,645/- crores had been paid by the
Lok Sabha Secretariat towards the rail travel of ex-MPs during the quarter Jan-
Mar 2013. (Letter No 1(556)/IC/13 dated 31/05/2013 of the Lok Sabha
Secretariat)
Back to Kerala again, each minister in Kerala is entitled to
have a personal staff of 25 of his own choice, no qualifications, competence
prescribed. And they also become eligible for life long pension/family pension
after just 30 months of service. There was this Minister for Health, Srimathi,
who had employed her own daughter in law as a cook in her house, as her
personal staff.
Kerala government, which had stopped statutory pension to
its employees who have joined after 01 Jan 2014, has introduced pension for
even the elected members of local bodies recently.
The betrayal of soldiers is not limited to pay and pensions.
The Armed Forces Tribunals (AFT) and Ex Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme
(ECHS) were introduced long, long after the Central Administrative Tribunal
(CAT) and Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) had been in place.
While there are 17 benches for CAT, there are only 9 benches
for the AFT. As per a list dated 23 Sep 2020, there are only 23 vacant
positions out of 65 posts of members sanctioned for CATs. But all the benches
are functional.
In the case of AFTs, there are only the Principal Bench at
Delhi that has the full quorum of Judicial and Administrative members (2 each).
While Chandigarh bench has a judicial member, Chennai bench has only an
administrative member. The other benches are defunct as per data available at http://aftdelhi.nic.in/regional_benches1.html on 23
Nov 2020.
While I hold the Contempt of Court Act as anathema in a
democracy, the fact remains that the CATs have this power which makes their
decisions more implementable. The AFTs do not have this power and hence their
orders are often dumped with impunity.
The disparity between CGHS and ECHS is also baffling.
The ECHS introduced in 2003-04 with great fanfare has also
proved to be a damp squib. With a smart card having biometric identification
features, one was supposed to walk in and out of empaneled hospitals without
any hassles in getting the required medical care. Funds were not supposed to be
a problem at all. But a decade and a half later, there are many hospitals, who
had once been empaneled, refusing to renew the contract. The bills of private
hospitals pending with ECHS are preventing many hospitals from joining the
scheme. Some are taking the cost from beneficiaries promising to refund it once
their bills get cleared.
CGHS has also facilities for non-allopathic modes of health
care. ECHS doesn’t.
To illustrate how awkward things are for old soldiers,
during the pandemic it was announced that beneficiaries could buy medicines
prescribed by ECHS or empaneled hospitals from outside pharmacies. While
submitting claims, observations have been raised that when substitute medicines
are bought the cost must be the lowest. Just imagine the plight of a poor
soldier who, in good faith, buys whatever his next-door pharmacist provides
him. How is he to know whether the medicine provided to him is the cheapest?
Should he go from pharmacy to pharmacy enquiring how much a Metformin tablet
would cost? And how can he be sure that, after such a strenuous exercise, whatever
he has bought is still the cheapest?
One has heard of being penny wise, pound foolish. But don’t
our procedures show how our systems cheat our own?
Let me conclude with a humorous anecdote that is viral in
veteran circles.
A General had a light stroke while swimming in the Army
pool. As luck would have it, only a young lieutenant was around who promptly
jumped and saved him...Once out of the pool, the General, after gaining his
breath said @look son, I am the CDS ....tell me anything you want from the
Army...and you will get it...The youngster hurriedly thanked him for the nice
offer and wanted to leave....The General was too grateful and repeated his
offer...
The youngster slowly said, if you really want to do me a
favor... PLEASE DO NOT TELL ANYONE THAT I SAVED YOU.
Further reading:
A NATION AND ITS ARMED
FORCES
http://raviforjustice.blogspot.com/2012/01/nation-and-its-armed-forces.html
WILL THE ARMY CHIEF GET
JUSTICE?
http://raviforjustice.blogspot.com/2012/01/will-army-chief-get-justice.html
(This is about the then
CoAS Gen V K Singh’s Date of Birth controversy and case. In the event the
General did not get justice even in this simple case of official date of birth.
The General himself expressed this view when he was threatened with a Contempt
of Court case.)
CIVIL-MILITARY CONFRONTATION
at
http://raviforjustice.blogspot.in/2012/06/civil-military-confrontation.html
FOR WHOM THE SOLDIERS
SACRIFICE THEIR LIVES AND LIFES…
http://raviforjustice.blogspot.in/2014/02/for-whom-soldiers-sacrifice-their-lives.html
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