Yoginder Kandhari
Precedence has it that Independence Day address to the nation by the Prime Minister is supposed to be a report card of government’s achievements and annunciation of future initiatives. Thus far most PMs have refrained from lacing their speeches, from ramparts of Lal Quila, with any political rhetoric. This year, Modi made a departure by tweaking his address into a political one with an eye on forthcoming Bihar elections. His address, sans any reference to national security situation, foreign policy and, most importantly, to Naga Accord which still remains shrouded in a mystery, lacked luster, both in content and conviction.
Post the address, veterans of Armed Forces, who are on a Relay Hunger Strike (RHS) at Jantar Mantar for more than two months now, were a disappointed lot. They expected Modi to announce implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP). That was not to be. Their Izat having been bruised by Delhi Police a day earlier, veterans’ anger against Modi Govt. is more than justified. Delhi policemen had the audacity to physically drag an eighty year old veteran of three wars and also a gallantry award winner and tears away his medals. This brutality could not have been perpetuated without sanction from the Union Home Ministry to whom Delhi police reports. B. S. Bassi, Delhi Police Commissioner, and his deputy, M.K. Meena, brazenly justified the actions of their subordinates. It is only in India that gallantry award winners are humiliated and maltreated as they were in Delhi. BJP ministers need to learn from the British and the Americans how to respect gallantry awardees and the veterans. Hollow sloganeering is not enough. Police can be sensitized to this national pride only when political masters themselves stop lip serving the armed forces. Police all over India, including J&K, has to come out of British hangover of brutality and political slavery. I vividly remember a lady SHO, in Jammu, boasting ‘a constable of police is more popular than an army General in Sainik Colony’. This arrogance manifests deep rooted malice within our system.
Modi, having kick-started his election campaign with a massive veterans’ rally, at Rewari, promised them OROP no sooner he came to power. But he has done no better than the Congress by not fulfilling it thus far. If social media is an indicator of peoples’ mood, the veterans and the serving fraternity is seething in anger against the Govt. and Delhi police and that does not auger well for the nation. Some posts even argue that the nation has been ungrateful to its soldiers. A retired Brigadier has posted ‘I myself feel ashamed that I fought two wars and got wounded 40 km inside Pakistan for these thankless politicians of India’. Four former Chiefs have written an open letter to the President, the Supreme Commander of Armed Forces, supporting the cause of agitating veterans and seeking an early resolution. The government remains insensitive to the demand and on top of that Jaitley rubs salt to injury when, in response to a question about OROP, he condescendingly retorts ‘arithmetic is being translated’. That manifested his bloated conceit of political power. Rumors have it that Jaitely is annoyed with veterans for having voted en-bock for Capt. Amrinder Singh during the general elections.
Lest he forget the reality of it, Jaitely needs a polite reminder that he has no election victory to his credit. He has always sneaked into the portals of parliament through the back door.
For a long time now, genesis of the demand of OROP by veterans and its genuineness has been debated thread-bear in print and electronic media. Suffice to highlight that Armed Forces have always been discriminated against by consistently degrading them financially and in status. Unfortunately, in India political control of armed forces has degenerated into bureaucratic control and that is where the scourge lies. Where else in the world would you find that a department, like Department of Sainik Welfare (DSW), created to look after the interests of war widows, disabled soldiers and veterans, itself becomes a stumbling block for those whom it was created to serve? DSW, with a civilian bureaucrat as its head, embroiled widows and disabled soldiers in endless legal battles for petty amounts and drove them to penury so much so Supreme Court of India was so disgusted as to observe ‘Govt. is treating soldiers’ widows and disabled soldiers as beggars’. Even such strong strictures from the highest court in the country did little to improve the situation.
Modi government needs to realize that veterans are not asking for any favour by seeking an early implementation of OROP. It is neither an intricate arithmetical puzzle, as Jaitley would like to project it, nor is it a huge financial burden to the exchequer. Lack of political will is stalling its implementation. Mind you, bureaucrats have already insured themselves with equivalent of OROP called Non Functional Up-gradation pay (NFU). Strangely, armed forces have been kept outside the ambit of NFU pay.
Often concerns are raised by naysayers that other organizations, like other Central Police Organizations loosely called Para Military Forces (PMF), too would raise similar demands in future. Country would like to know which other organization in India compulsorily retires a person between 32 to 35 years of age and then leaves him to fend for himself for rest of his life. There is a huge disparity in allowances paid to army and the so called PMF. Suffice to say that deputation allowance for a central police officer to ‘Cobra Force’ is Rs.12,000 per month while similar allowance for an army officer on deputation to special forces is a meager Rs.1,200 per month. Efficacy of the two forces is best left to the wisdom of readers to judge. This discrimination against Armed Forces personnel is endless.
OROP has been approved by two parliaments and Modi stands morally committed to its implementation. Delay in its implementation is raising valid doubts in veterans’ minds. They have been cheated ever since independence when their pays were reduced or later when their pension was drastically cut and because of the ever elusive implementation of OROP since 1973. Modi held out a hope for the aging veterans but has done little to cheer them up. To see veterans, most of them in their seventies and even in eighties, on protest hunger strike is indeed a sorry sight for a nation. National security implications of a protracted struggle by veterans can be ignored by the nation on its own peril for today’s soldiers are tomorrow’s veterans. Veterans have a reason to be disappointed with PM Modi.
(The author is a retired army officer)
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