UFESM (JM) CALLS FOR REFERENDUM ON 

FUTURE COURSE OF ACTION

11 AM on 03 Apr, 2016 

I am not a member of UFESM (JM) but am happy that Gen Satbir and his dedicated team of veterans have taken the democratic step to evaluate and collectively decide our future course of action as a community, something that I have been suggesting for some time now. 

It must be understood by every Indian, that veterans are soldiers too, the soldiers whom Gen Slim immortalized with,  "A soldier never dies, he only fades away". We have the right not only to use our respective ranks on paper, but also wear them on appropriate occasions at our own discretion. 

I pity the intellectual fervour of those among us who see no wrong done to us as a community, by the present Govt. Even though the devaluation, demotion and denigration (d3), with only lip service paid to the uniformed, started immediately after independence, this Govt has been the worst of all.

For the first time, a govt has repeatedly and publicly denigrated its soldiers, who are the only past, present and the future defenders of the Nation's freedom, security and safety.

When I was commissioned in 1962, I read the Travel Regulations for the first time and was surprised to see that an officer on posting, was entitled to carry four horses with saeeses, at govt cost. The acquisition and upkeep of the horses were apparently at the officers' own cost. With our salary barely enough to survive like gentlemen that we were supposed to be, we could not have afforded to keep even half a horse. 

Our predecessors bore higher status than any of the civil services and were paid well enough to be able to afford not one but four horses with four saeeses! 

Today one may exclaim, "Why a horse is needed to be kept by a Defense officer?" Well, horse riding is a part of training of a gentleman cadet at IMA for some good reasons. 

The salaries of defense officers were slashed with the due concurrence of the then C-in-C, our very own Field Marshal. Why blame only the Govt!

Then came the 3rd CPC, after the stupendous, history making victory of 1971, when the status, honour, dignity and means to live a decent life, were blatantly and shamelessly taken away from the veteran soldiers, without a whimper by any one in the Defense Forces.

On the one hand, the pensions of soldiers were slashed from 70% to 50%, those of the civil services were zoomed from 33% to 50%.

As if this was not enough, the status of the Central police forces were raised beyond the official protocol and they were allowed to use higher badges of rank than hitherto, creating chaos in the civil-military interaction, so essential at the frequent times the soldiers are called up in aid to civil. To make 'confusion worse confounded', now the police forces brazenly, even wear the sacred uniform of the Army, an act barred by law, with impunity.

With every successive CPC, the inter-say status of the soldier was lowered and lowered and lowered, till in the 7th CPC, we are at the bottom of the hierarchial table. A soldier sepoy is graded as a class IV employee, in line with the Central govt's peon! 

Just imagine, a highly skilled soldier, trained and armed to the teeth with complex arms, ammunition and equipment, to kill an equally trained and armed enemy, is equated with an office peon!!! Can the soldier be further disgraced?

The OROP  saga is now known the World over and the international media has many an article on the shameless way this Govt has not only gone back on its solemn promises to the soldiers but even mocked at them for believing the pre-poll 'Election Jumlas'. They also, true to their wont, insist on calling an OR5Ps scheme as OROP. They never tire of not only telling the Nation that OROP has been sanctioned, but how the soldiers are being unreasonably demanding, doing their best to bring down the Nation's respect for the soldiers.

A soldier is bound by the Army Act and countless other rules and regulation, in addition to all the laws of the land. He, unlike the others, cannot agitate for his own rights. Who then is going to look after the soldiers' welfare and ensure that his rights, honour and dignity are not brutalized and trampled upon?

To a soldier, it is his honour, first and last. 
He dies for it. Throughout his life as an active soldier, he is primed for it through collective training. This Govt has done its best to deprive the soldier of his last vestige of  honour and dignity. 
This is dangerous. The Govt is playing with fire.

As I wrote before, time has come when we need to collectively re-evaluate our position vis-a-vis the Govt of the day and decide on a new course of action, if found necessary.

I commend the efforts of UFESM (JM), under the leadership of Gen Satbir and wish God speed to its fight for 'Restoration of the Honour and Dignity of the Soldier', so determinedly snatched away, bit by bit, by successive govts, since independence.