Maha Rally 12 April as seen by Brig CS Kamboj

To,
All Members And ESM Organisations
On Emailing List of "Report My Signal".

Dear Friends,
Jai Hind.
An email received from Lt Gen Raj Kadyan, Chairman IESM, giving IESM SITREP for 12 Apr 09, is appended below.

The photographs taken at Jantar today will follow soon, in batches. The photos will give you a good idea of the representation from large number of states.

Another highlight of the function was a skit presented by the team of veterans from Lucknow - the skit was very well received by the audience and the media.

We will try and send you the transcript of the script. I am sure you will enjoy it.
Broadly the skit was that one ESM dressed up as Rawan; some of the ten faces were Dr Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, RM, FM and others. Another ESM was dressed up as Ram. Ram asked questions related to the problems of the ESM, Rawan gave funny answer depicting what the present Government did to ESM. At the end Rawan admitted that when he goes to heaven he will have to answer to the Almighty. Therefore, Rawan decides to give justice to ESM.

Media presence was much less compared to our last rally; reason is obvious - the election fever gets higher priority compared to the ESM rally.

I may also add here that while the ESM from distance stations came in large numbers - in spite of repeated humble requests the turn out of ESM from NCR could be counted on finger tips; I am sure you could have done better SIRS.

Some of the ESM were looking around for the President of IESL. When they came to know that President IESL had not come for the rally - the ESM became very angry and used abusive language as they felt cheated by President IESL.
In Service of Indian Military Veterans
Chander Kamboj.
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From: raj kadyan rajkadyan@yahoo.com
Subject: ESM fast sitrep 12 Apr evening
To: "REPORT MY SIGNAL(CS Kamboj)" kamboj_cs@yahoo.co.in ; TRUNCATED
Date: Sunday, 12 April, 2009, 10:11 PM
Dear Colleagues,
Maha Rally 12 April 09
The rally was held as scheduled. There was good attendance, estimated at nearly 8,000 ESM including families. The heterogeneous mix was a notable feature. States represented were – Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, UP, Uttarkhand, HP, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan. ESM belonging to different organisations had assembled. At the end, approximately 2000 medals were deposited with the President.
Highlight of the day was the issue of voting advisory that the ESM had been persistently demanding. In this connection following points were made:
1. Voting is a constitutional right and everyone is free to vote as per his/her choice.
2. Vote is an important weapon in our armoury and must be used with great care and thought.
3. We must follow the principle, ‘we will help those who help us’.
4. OROP being 25 years old problem, national political parties that held power during the period were recalled – Some 11 years Congress, 5 years UPA with Congress as a dominant party and some six years NDA with the BJP as the dominant party. Neither of them sanctioned OROP.
5. Current situation is that the Congress has rejected the OROP in Dec 2008 and have made no mention of it in their new election manifesto. On the contrary, the BJP has made a specific mention in their manifesto to say that the principle of one rank one pension will be implemented. In addition their Prime Ministerial candidate Mr LK Advani visited Jantar Mantar and made a categorical commitment to implement OROP. No one from the Congress has established any contact.
6. Based on the above analysis, it seems logical that keeping in the mind the interests of the over two million Ex Servicemen vis-à-vis OROP, BJP is a better choice.
7. It was reiterated that this is only an advisory and everyone has a right vote as he/she deems fit.

The message was generally well received.
Best regards,

Lt Gen (Emeritus) Raj Kadyan, PVSM, AVSM, VSM