Dear All, My article published this morning in The Citizen, titled Scandalous but True, is enclosed. Regards. Vijay Oberoi Scandalous but True thecitizen.in/scandalous-but-true/ The Citizen 09 July 2014 Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi Government employees are of two broad categories – civilian and military. Amongst the former, only the generalist administrators are called bureaucrats. In most countries, the spheres of the two categories are well defined and both are considered important organs of the state. Most countries also ensure that military personnel have an edge on their civilian colleagues on account of their extremely difficult conditions of service; ever-present dangers to life and limb; retirement at young ages; being on duty 24X7; and because security is of the highest importance. This is manifested in better status, better emoluments and pride of place for the military. This was the situation in India too till the late 1950’s. The Indian Military was a highly respected institution; it had a high status and was paid slightly better than the civilian officials. Then the decline started, when the bureaucrats assiduously started a steady campaign and pro-actively commenced to cast doubts in the minds of the political leadership about the loyalty of the military. The events in neighbouring Pakistan, with added “mirch-masala”, further built up a fear psychosis in their minds. That turned the entire edifice on its head. By then, the bureaucrats had cosied up to the politicians and made themselves indispensable. This added to the steady downgrading of the military. We now have a new government, which most soldiers believe will bring back the old days, although the bureaucracy, having entrenched itself, may be a tough nut to crack, even for a bold, pragmatic, highly aware and no-nonsense political leader like Prime Minister Modi. Over the past six decades, most soldiers being optimists, had thought that the political leadership, being the legitimate authority for governance, would wake up to the misconceived actions of the bureaucrats and restrain them, but unfortunately they did not do so, possibly on account of the “mutual back-scratching syndrome” that prevailed in the corridors of power! Will the new government change this or are military personnel destined to remain as ‘Children of a Lesser God’? A phrase oft-stated in our ancient texts is “Veer Bhogey Vasundhara”, meaning ‘the brave shall enjoy the fruits of the earth’. While the Indian Military has exhibited its bravery, professionalism and efficiency in ample measure in both peace and war, in all internal and external challenges; the fruits of the earth have escaped it and have been gathered by the bushel by our remarkable bureaucracy! Encouraged by the lack of any action by the political leadership, the downgrading of the military continued apace. In 1947, the DC and SP in a district were equivalent to a young major and a captain respectively. Today, these worthies want to equate themselves with brigadiers and generals, citing the much larger pay packet they had managed for themselves!! Then In 1972, the bureaucrats unilaterally decided that henceforth chief secretaries of states would be senior to army commanders within their states; till a few years earlier, these worthies were officially equated to major generals! After the 4th Pay Commission, the cabinet secretary was brought up to the same scale as the service chiefs, again unilaterally, and in the sixth pay commission, the police DGP’s started getting more pay than corps commanders! As is well known, there are huge deficiencies of officers in the military; massive stagnation; and extremely short tenures at senior levels; while the bureaucracy is flourishing. Statistics bear this out in ample measure. Number of secretary grade officers in IAS has risen from 45 in 1947 to nearly 400 – for cadre strength of 5000, while equivalent army commanders have gone up only from 4 to 8 – for cadre strength of 40,000 and over one million strength of the army! The result is that while every IAS official will retire in the HAG+ grade, only 0.25 % will make that grade in all the three Services! A few months back the government (read bureaucrats) decided that officers of class I services and their immediate families could seek medical treatment in foreign countries at government expense, but military officers are excluded from this dispensation! Why? The reason for such disparities was and continues to be the surreptitious upping of the emoluments by the bureaucrats, leaving the military personnel at their earlier levels and the political leadership ignoring this gross injustice to the military. It is for this reason that the bureaucracy has repeatedly convinced a willing political leadership to keep the military out of successive pay commissions, despite the fact that the military has the largest number of government employees! Coming to the veterans, in 1947 all military personnel were receiving ‘military pension’, which was 70% of last pay, on account of early retirement, while all civil officials were getting 30% as pension. At the first opportunity, the bureaucrats upped their pension to 50% and brought down military pension to 50%! How clever?! During 2013-14, while the budget allocations for civilian officials of the Central Government Health Scheme were based at Rs 10,700 per beneficiary, the allocations were only Rs 3,150/- per beneficiary for the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme. Why again? The 34 years old saga of the grant of OROP is too well known to be repeated here. Even though it has been finally accepted by both the previous government and the present one, the bureaucrats are delaying implementation on flimsy grounds. The Ministry of Defence contests every award of pension or disability benefits granted by the high courts’ and the Armed Forces Tribunals, by lodging appeals to the Supreme Court, as a matter of routine, by the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare that is ironically charged with the welfare of veterans. Contrast this with how veterans, disabled personnel, war widows and all soldiers are treated with the utmost respect in other countries. Protests have always been lodged by service headquarters, but the culture of the military is not to resort to strikes, ‘dharnas’ and the like, as it expects the political leadership to carry out remedial measures. However, our political leadership in the earlier dispensation had abrogated its authority to the bureaucrats, so they had made merry. The Indian soldiers, on account of their faith in democracy and the officers who lead them; their innate goodness; and the discipline that has been ingrained in them; have a great capacity to accept and absorb wrongs, but if these continue on a sustained and regular basis, as is happening, then it will be foolish to expect them to keep accepting policies that are patently discriminatory! If the aspirations of the military continue to be ignored, no one should blame it if it revolts and takes drastic action. The armed forces have remained staunchly loyal and apolitical, but this may not last if the nation does not treat serving soldiers, veterans and their families with the respect they deserve and give them a fair deal. Their expectations have now heightened after the appointment of Prime Minister Modi, who must ‘walk the talk’ now
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 08:40:27 +0000
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