Views by RN Radhakrishnan (Rtd Major General) on OROP

Dear Veterans,

Now that the elections are coming to an end and we have some hope of our pension policy being reviewed no matter who forms the Government, let us see to what extent we are clear on what we want.

It is apparent that the Government is aware of the blunder in the implementation of the 11th Nov 2008 Pension policy with its annexure (i) to (iv), using all kinds of arbitrary formulae and principles. Hence they are likely to come out with some of the following options:
Option 1. Instead of using ‘the minimum of the pay band’ as the basis for revising the pension, it is quite possible that they will choose ‘the minimum of the pay in the pay band’ corresponding each rank. Quite a few of us on my request had asked for the same. But remember such asking was as a short term solution and in accordance with the correct interpretation of the Pension Policy. Now that they did not respond to us objectively and instead tried tell us we are wrong, we should not accept this option. We must advise, (I intend to do) the Service HQ not to support this option, in case they are inclined to. I quote from the letter from Commodore KN Bhagat VSM to Maj Gen Surjit Singh.

“With a view to reinstate the original concept of Modified Panty, we are attempting to seek fixation of pension of all past pensioners at 50% of the appropriate pay in the relevant Pay Band corresponding to the minimum of the pre-revised scales” (Para 8)

Option 2. It is possible that the Government may interpret the SC Judgment in the case of the Major General in our favor and opt for fixing our pay notionally in the revised pay scale as per SAI 1 and 2/S/2008, and use that pay for revising the pension. There is a strong case if cognizance is taken only of the recent judgment. However this also does not amount to what is termed as OROP (I prefer APIP, but doesn’t matter much). As serving officer is likely to have his pay fixed higher. His pension in spite of his length of service being same as an ESP of the same rank also is likely to be higher. Where than is the Parity?
Option 3. If better sense prevails and the Service Hqrs pursue the OROP relentlessly (as promised by the CNS in a DOL to me and Cdre Bhagat also hinted in the same letter mentioned above), OROP as spelt out by Lt Gen Raj Khadayn may be conceded and we may celebrate our victory. However as same rank same length of service are the qualifications, one rank but with different length of service shall be eligible for different pensions. Therefore I do not recommend this option also.
Option 4. I would like to insist on ‘Absolute Parity in Pension’ for a service personnel based purely on his rank and the maximum pay in the pay band/ scale provided that a minimum qualifying service might have to stipulated to entitle him for the maximum pension. This approach shall stand the test of time and as many Pay Commissions as one may form, in the future.

We have enough time to mull over the various aspects and arguments in favor and against, so that when an opportunity knocks at our door for negotiations we are all clear as to what do we really mean by ‘OROP’.

Regards RN Radhakrishnan (Rtd Major General)

Views of Maj PM Ravindran ...rejoinder to Brig Gulia

Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 07:08:33 +0530

Subject: don't yap but work

From: majorravi@gmail.com

To: hesl_rksgulia@sify.com


Brig Gulia

I have seen your mail about IESM. Let me tell you that the IESL leadership is acting like the third rate trade union leaders who pose as leaders of the workers, take bribes from the corporate bosses and finally dump their followers. The Britishers are reported to have left us the legacy of divide and rule. The Nehru family has perfected it, thanks to Jaichands like you. It doesn't need much intelligence to understand that it is only because of IESM that the govt is even pretending to be attending to what is being advertised as welfare of veterans. Just because IESM has forced it upon them they do not want to give them the credit for it and would like to use your impotent organisation to get the undeserved lime light for the moment. It is the same ploy the britishers used when leaving India- crediting Gandhiji's non violent satyagraha for their departure when the real reason is that the likes of Bhagat Singh, Netaji and Mangal pandey had made it impossible for them to continue here. And look what has happened since then. Nobody talks of satyagraha and non-violence when it comes to pretecting Italian bar girls and her cohorts by employing SPG and NSG at mind boggling cost to the tax payers.

Coming to the impotence of your organisation I do not think it needs any highlighting. To any body who thinks straight it should be obvious that the birth of IESM itself is a direct consequence of the treason of your organisation.

Like Gandhiji rightly demanded that the Congress be disbanded so that its fair name would not be misused by individuals, I too would like to demand that the IESL be disbanded at the earliest so that its fair name of the past is not misused by good for nothing people like you.

Veteran Major P M Ravindran


Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 10:16:59 +0530
Subject: Re: ADVISORY BY IESM
From: hesl_rksgulia@sify.com
To: premgaba@hotmail.com

Dear Prem,
Thanks for the suggession.In the core commitee of MOD formed to bridge
gap between pre & post Jan 06 pensioners there are four members from . It is IESM which has sent signal of disunity to Govt by writing that they represent two million ESM.
You know as much I do this street play group was formed with political ambition of less than one hunderedth of IESL membership.

This unreconised gp is on white lie disinformation campaign.In fact due to their now declared political alignment lot of desertion is seen. IESL is always for unity and will not tolerate any dilution.

Regards
RK
(Brig RKS Gulia, President IESL)

ESM Meet at Dehra Dun 11 may 2009...Lt Gen KK Khanna

From: kkkhanna46@yahoo.com

To: rajkadyan@yahoo.com

Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 6:33 AM

Subject: ESM MEET AT DEHRADUN 11 MAY

ESM MEET AT DEHRADUN

Gen Nandwani and Lt Col Brij Thapa have given you prompt feedback of the Meet already. I am writing this more for record.

Despite short notice, I am happy that we were able to bring together a large No of ESM of different affiliations. The presence of Brig KG Behl and Lt Col Brij Thapa of the Dehradun ESL was most significant and needs appreciation. Lt Col Brij Thapa contributed whole heartedly, in the interest of ex servicemen. A large No of members of UESL (Uttrakhand ESL) and DESL (Dehradun ESL) including Col BD Dangwal were present, thanks to them.

The person who did all the groundwork, but never came on the stage at all (despite my request), is Col TS Payal (pronounced like Dayal). (Col Payal, alongwith some other ESM, has been instrumental in enrolling large number of ESM for IESM)

The senior officers present were, Air Marshal G Sen, Lt Gens HB Kala, Anand Sarup, Self, besides Generals Samsher Singh, Gosain, C Nandwani who received the guests at Jolly Grant in his car and saw them off. Brig Anand, Col Dewan, Col BD Dangwal and many other very active ex servicemen graced the meet. Many ladies were present as may be seen in the photographs.

Due to delay in the flight from Delhi, lunch had been served for the audience before the VIPs arrived. As we waited, Brig Behl, Lt Col Thapa, and Col Painuly addressed the audience. Dr Nautiyal (Dental) handled the ceremonies.

Gen Satbir was the first, highly motivating, articulate speaker who made his apolitical approach very clear to one and all. His thrust was welfare measures for exservicemen, that are not generally known and said that the IESM approach was to support the BJP only at present, in view of their promise. Should they also not deliver our approach would change in the best interest of ex servicemen. He was highly convincing. We regret the pro BJP expressions by a section of the audience. These were spontaneous, and not pre-planned.

Similarly Gen SK Sinha’s highly intellectual and lucid discourse in Hindi, convinced one and all. Both speakers took on ‘questions’, though these are more speeches than questions. General Nandwani invited Gen Anand Sarup, MVC, to come on the stage and thank Gen Sinha. Both Air Marshal Sen and Gen Kala had advised this. The National Anthem was the first and last organised activity.

Gen Nandwani and Brij Thapa have already informed you about the presence of the Press.

Our attempt was to organise it more like an event at a Service Institution rather than like a civilian or ESM rally. We are happy to have been able to do so, to a great extent.

We thank Gen Satbir for coming and addressing the ESM of Doon Valley and arranging the talk by Lt Gen SK Sinha, PVSM.

With regards.

KKK

(Lt Gen KK Khanna, Former Commandant IMA)

UPA’s death blow to the morale of Indian Armed Forces

UPA’s death blow to the morale of Indian Armed Forces


By: V.SUNDARAM
vsundaram@newstodaynet.com

B.R. Haran has rightly observed: ‘If Parliament is the 'Heart' of Democracy, then the Armed Forces can be called as the 'Central Nervous System', which is vital for the democracy to survive and succeed.

The political class might feel proud of being the Members of Parliament of the world's largest democracy, but it had miserably failed to take care of its 'central nervous system', which is now threatening to complicate the system of democracy, which is not good for the health of the country’.

The Armed Forces, serving as well as retired, have been deeply perturbed by the callous attitude of the UPA government. They are all disappointed and demoralized by the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna. In fact, the resentment in the Armed Forces has actually started from the third pay commission (1976) itself and it has been growing since then and has reached a boiling point now due to the total neglect of the essential needs, fundamental feelings, emotions and sentiments of the Armed Forces of India as a whole, by the Sixth Pay Commission. It is high time that the government wakes-up to the issue and solves it, or otherwise, a volcano is waiting to erupt with disastrous consequences for our already weak nation’s future.

The Armed Forces and the organizations like 'All India Veterans Welfare Association' (AIVWA) have been repeatedly airing their grievances to the government, but to no avail. Even at the time of constitution of the Sixth Pay Commission, they had requested for the inclusion of a few serving and retired military officers as members of the Pay Commission, but the government had turned a deaf ear to this very reasonable request. The Armed Forces of India today strongly feel that the government has acted in a partial manner according to the whims and fancy of the bureaucracy, resulting in the total neglect of the Armed Forces and its requirements. The Sixth Pay Commission, which comprises of members only from bureaucracy, has allegedly taken care of its self-interests while turning a blind eye to the legitimate urges and aspirations of Armed Forces.

In this context I would like to quote the appropriate words of Major General Eustace D’Souza (Retd.): ‘Never before since Independence have the Armed Forces reacted with such unison to express their deep disappointment at the recommendations of Justice B.N.Srikrishna’s Sixth Pay Commission currently being hotly and emotionally challenged by all ranks serving and retired, of our Armed Forces. The Babus or the Mandarins in Delhi who considered the issue bring back to mind an incident at the Course no: 7 of the National Defence College New Delhi in 1967. The speaker for that morning was the then Defence Secretary. At the conclusion of his presentation, three serving Officers Captain (IN) E.Chandy Kuruvilla (later Vice Admiral), Air Commodore Idris Hasan Lattif (later Air Chief Marshall, Chief of the Air Staff) and myself, then a Brigadier fresh from facing the PLA (the Communist Chinese Peoples Liberation Army) on the high altitude of East Sikkim Watershed, rose in unison and posed this question: ‘The Armed Forces have been on the qui vive ever since Independence: the Punjab Boundary Force, Kashmir, counter insurgency in the North East, the ill-fated 1962 War against the Chinese, the 1965 War against Pakistan yet keeping a wary eye on China in the East – there were four skirmishes at Yak La and Nathu La --- that there was no National War Memorial to the thousands of our gallant soldiers, sailors and airmen who had sacrificed their lives for the Nation. Yet, the British had erected the most impressive War Memorial, the India Gate on the high visibility Raj Path, a tourist landmark, for Indian troops that sacrificed their lives in World War I’. Pat came the typically suave Babu reply: ‘Whatever for? They are only doing their duty’. That wooden, lifeless and irresponsible Defence Secretary whoever he was has been rightly consigned to an ineluctable oblivion’.


Let us salute our Armed Forces “A glorious death is his Who for his country falls” - Homer in his ‘Iliad’ in 9th century B.C.

According to Major General D’Souza, it was only after the 1971 War that the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi agreed to put up a National War Memorial in the form of a Samadhi but under the Imperial National War Memorial. Indira Gandhi was a mean, vicious, graceless and small-minded woman. In a very touching manner Major General D’Souza has lamented: ‘Dwarfed by the imposing landmark of India Gate very few of our countrymen stop to say a silent prayer or place a posy of flowers’. If we have any national self-respect, we should compare this meager Indian Memorial with the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London or the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysee in Paris, or Arlington in Washington, or Sofia in Bulgaria, wherever. I have mentioned this incident only because it is a true reflection of the very same Babus, who comprise the Pay Commission. It is obvious that their callous motto is: ‘I am alright, you are alright, so what is the problem?’ This attitude has become glaringly evident in the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations.

Crooked and corrupt Indian Politicians (mostly belonging to the Congress Party) have been constructing innumerable statues and memorials at public cost to perpetuate their dastardly public deeds of crime and infamy. They have no time or grace or heart for the un-mourned and unsung heroes of our Armed Forces who have laid down their lives for the safety and integrity of our Motherland. Thousands of Indian Soldiers have died fighting for our Country after our independence. No memorial has been raised for them. All the War Memorials in India were raised during the days of British Raj.

The fact of the matter is that right from day after our Independence, the Congress Party and the government of India became two sides of the same coin. Though the message of Satyameva Jayathe (Truth alone Triumphs) was inscribed on the Official Emblem of the government of India, yet the working motto of all our Prime Ministers starting from the infantile and nervous Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947 till the tottering and faltering Dr. Man Mohan Singh of 2008 has been: Asatyameva Jayathe! (Untruth (Congress Falsehood) alone Triumphs).

According to Col. S S Rajan, it is indeed a matter of shame that right from 15 August 1947, the Government of India, i.e. the Prime Ministers starting from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi down to Sardar Manmohan Singh, the present Prime Minister, have never consulted, nay even ignored, the Chiefs of the Armed Forces while taking policy decisions in matters affecting the security and territorial integrity of our Nation.

A few examples by way of illustrations would amply illuminate what has been stated above.

1.When the Pakistan Army, in the garb of Tribals attacked India in Jammu & Kashmir to capture and annex the State of Jammu & Kashmir forcibly, and when the Pakistan Army was on the outskirts of Srinagar, the Indian Army was flown into Srinagar and soon, the Indian Army not only stemmed the tide but also drove back the Pakistan Army and was in the process of rolling back the Pakistan Army out of Jammu & Kashmir. And General Cariappa, the then Commander of the Indian Forces in Kashmir told Nehru that the Indian Army would accomplish their task of throwing out the invaders from Jammu & Kashmir in a matter of just two weeks. Unfortunately, Nehru without consulting General Cariappa, foolishly went in for a cease fire in Kashmir, the starting point of the problem which has festered for the past 60 years.

2. The brave soldiers of the Indian Army captured the strategically important ‘Haji Pir Pass’ in Jammu & Kashmir during the 1965 Indo-Pak War. After shedding much blood, Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minister, without consulting the Armed Forces gave back the ‘Haji Pir Pass’ to Pakistan following Tashkend Talks after the War.

3. The brave soldiers of the Indian Armed Forces fought gallantly in the 1971 war leading to the liberation of Bangladesh and captured of 94000 Pakistan soldiers as prisoners of War. These prisoners were treated as Royal Guests and kept by the government of India for two years and were returned to Pakistan after the Simla Talks with Zulfikar Ali Bhuto of Pakistan. Indira Gandhi took this disordered anti-national decision without consulting the chiefs of Armed Forces. Indira Gandhi treated them as Bangladesh refugees. The message Indira Gandhi gave to the nation was ‘Our soldiers have indeed died in vain. 94000 Pakistan soldiers who were imprisoned and later returned to Pakistan did not go to war without a cause’. In the garb of exercising civilian control over the Armed Forces by the Civilians in a Democracy, successive govt. in power have not only diluted the Combat Effectiveness or Worthiness of the Armed Forces, but also lowered its stature & image in the eyes of the public.

Every war after independence has been viewed as a SKIRMISH from the point of view of the Armed Forces and as great WARS for National Liberation from the point of view of our wicked unpatriotic politicians. That is how Nehru became the Hero of the Kashmir War in 1947, and the Chinese War in 1962; Lal Bahadur Shastri in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965; and Indira Gandhi in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. That is why 94000 Pakistan Soldiers taken as prisoners by the Great General Arora and his heroic men, were returned in a shamelessly submissive manner to Pakistan by Indira Gandhi.

Her egoism was such that whenever she was attending a wedding, she wanted to replace the bride; and whenever she was attending a funeral she wanted to replace the corpse. All our politicians (particularly Congress) are mortally scared of Muslims of India and Pakistan. That is the reason they always fight shy of declaring our Martyrs from the Armed Forces of India, who have triumphantly fought against Pakistan, as War Heroes and build memorials for them. No wonder, any act of Islamic Terrorism – either in India or outside – is viewed by all our Political Leaders as acts of grace and compassion.

And, one is thus reminded of Francis Quarles' poem:
God and the soldier, all men adore,
In time of danger and not before;
When the danger is passed and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the soldier slighted.

Xxxxxxx

The Officers and Men in the Armed Forces of India today are in a sad state and mood of general disappointment, depression and dissatisfaction, which is having an adverse impact on their morale.

I have just finished reading an article by Major General E.D’ Souza, PVSM which was published in the June 2008 issue of Freedom First The Liberal Position under the title ‘Whatever For? They Are Only Doing Their Duty’. In Post-Independent India we seem to be more concerned with corrupt and unscrupulous politicians and their innumerable concubines! The nation never tries to recall or remember the lives and achievements of outstanding Officers and Men from the Armed Forces of India who have distinguished themselves in selfless national service.

Before I deal with the substantive issues Major General E. D’Souza has raised relating to the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission relating to the Armed Forces as a whole, I would like to refer to the distinguished life and achievements of Major General E. D’Souza as an Army Officer from 1942 till 1977. Born in 1921, he graduated in Science from St. Xaviers College, Bombay in 1941. He joined the Army in 1942 and was commissioned from the Indian Military Academy in 1943 and posted to the Mahratta Light Infantry. His Army Unit fought in the Italian Campaign from May 1944 to September 1945 in all the major battles after the fall of MONTE CASSINO to the crossing of the PO. Later he moved with his Unit to Japan as part of Brigadier Thimayya’s 268 Indian Infantry Brigade of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces from February 1946 to September 1947. After becoming a regular Officer of the Indian Army in November 1945, Major General D’ Souza distinguished himself in operations in the Uri Sector in Jammu & Kashmir in 1948 and was mentioned in Dispatches. At the young age of 28, he went to the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington, Nilgris in 1949. In 1952, he was posted on the Staff of Military Adviser HICOMIND London and he served in that position till 1955. He commanded a force of 25000 regular and para military forces during the 1971 War against Pakistan and was awarded PVSM. He retired as GOC Delhi Area in 1975, after 33 years of very distinguished and meritorious service. Even after his retirement, he has kept himself busy in very meaningful social and public service. Several organizations have honoured him for his public-spirited endeavours. The Rotary Club of Bombay honoured him with its Public Award for Courage and Perseverance during the 1995 Mumbai Riots.

Referring to the low level of emoluments in the Armed Forces, Major General D’ Souza states that there is a great disparity between emoluments of the Private Sector and the Armed Forces which is not only dissuading young Indians from applying for Commissions in the Armed Forces, but is also pushing Serving Officers to seek premature retirement in order to move to greener pastures. Why not? Officers of the Armed Forces need to live decent lives, educate their children and plan for an early retirement between 50 and 60 depending on their ranks and not as in the Civil Services at 60.

In the context of hardships and ordeals faced by Army Officers during their official career, I would like to cite the example of Major General D’ Souza. After serving in the Army for 16 years from 1942, he was posted to the militant-prone sector of Poonch in 1958. Thus he was separated from his family from 1958 till 1969. He kept his wife in a private bungalow in Mhow Cantt. He was forced to send his two sons to Mt.Abu because there were no good English Medium Schools in Mhow Cantt. at that time. Thus he gives us this sad story relating to the difficulties he had to face on account of his having to maintain three family establishments with his meager salary in those days. As a result of these prolonged separations, his wife suffered a nervous breakdown! There are innumerable examples of this kind relating to family trauma in the Armed Forces. As Major General D’ Souza puts it in poignant terms: ‘Which Babu sitting in his luxury office in South Block sends his sons to the Army? Because of his cozy stability, he is able to send his children to Ivy League Institutions in India and Abroad. How can such a bureaucrat ever get the feel of the inbuilt hazards of soldiering in its current avatar?’


When GEORGE FERNANDES, our former DEFENCE MINISTER, went to visit our troops in Siachen, he was shocked to see the conditions of service in the highest battlefield in the World, facing a live and deadly enemy. He was aghast to note the shortage of Snowmobiles that were available for transporting supplies to our Armed Forces in Siachen including kerosene from helipads/dropping zones. On his return to his office in South Block in New Delhi, George Fernandes called for the files and was shocked to learn that his Babu’s were totally unconcerned about processing the case for acquisition of additional vehicles for military use in Siachen. To teach them a lesson, George Fernandes packed those wooden, insensitive, and irresponsible Babus to get a taste of Siachen. The files thereafter were never held up by these Babus and were cleared expeditiously!

Never since Independence have elemental passions and emotions——not only among serving Services Personnel but also among Ex-servicemen — been aroused to such an extent as in recent weeks in different parts of India. All of them have made it clear to the government of India that they can never hope to get any justice from the Sixth Pay Commission. When the disgruntled and agitating ex-servicemen wanted to air their legitimate grievances in a silent and disciplined manner by paying their homage to the martyrs who have died fighting for our country at the Amar Jawan Jyothi Memorial at India Gate in New Delhi on 27 April 2008, the government of Delhi (which does not exclude the government of India!) covered themselves with everlasting shame and infamy by imposing a ban under Section 144 of the IPC. Un-subdued, unshaken and un-seduced, the ex-servicemen of India conducted 30 meetings at War Memorials in different parts of the country — Delhi (Jantar Mantar), Chandigarh, Amritsar, Bangalore, Nerul Navi Mumbai etc. Protesting through demonstrations and speeches (quite contrary to the Armed Forces culture) several meetings were organized in a dignified manner. In all those meetings, the services of thousands of men who have sacrificed their lives for our country were remembered and recalled. The three Service Chiefs, in a demonstration of solidarity, met the Defence Minister A K Anthony and expressed their strong sense of dismay and unhappiness at the Sixth Pay Commissions recommendations on which there was no representative of the Armed Forces.

An Ex-Army Chief General Malik made an impassioned written appeal to the Prime Minister bringing these patent instances of injustice done to the Armed Forces of India to his notice. As a poor consolation prize, the impotent government of India nominated its no less impotent Cabinet Secretary to conduct a lunch meeting with the three Service Chiefs. This is a classic instance of ‘Sonia-Congress UPA hypocrisy at its pseudo secular anti-national (anti-Armed Forces!) best’. In this context, I am only reminded of the following rapier-like words of W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965): ‘Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments; it is a whole time job’.

In my view the following are the main legitimate grievances of the Armed Forces of India:

1. There is an imperative national need to have a separate Pay Commission for the Armed Forces of India.

2. One representative each from the Army, Navy and the Air Force will have to be included in all such Pay Commissions.

3. There has to be a revision of emoluments in the Armed Forces in an issue based manner and the long-standing demand for ‘One Rank One Pension’ has to be conceded forthwith to boost the sagging morale of the Armed Forces.

I fully endorse the following words of Major General D’Souza: ‘Logic demands that service in the Armed Forces of India based on historic grounds since Independence cannot be equated with other Civil Services. Unless the whole procedure and composition of Pay Commissions are revised, the Services will no longer be sought by our youth as careers, especially in the Officer cadre. This is obvious from the marked short fall in intakes for Commissions and the increasing number of Service Personnel seeking premature retirement. Can the Nation afford to reach such a dangerous impasse with cross border militancy on the increase as evidenced in the recent Samba and Pulwama incidents; the growing problems of Naxalites; the location of Chinese Nuclear Missiles on the Indo-Chinese border facing India and its strident claims on Arunachal Pradesh; the growing Maoist influence in our immediate neighbourhood and our UN Commitments’.

Against this background, Major General D’ Souza has made the following recommendations on the sensitive issue of emoluments in the Armed Forces of India:

A. As a long-term measure, there should be a separate Pay Commission for the Armed Forces.

B. In the case of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, a GOP of Ministers from all parties representing all States should be set up to examine and rectify the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations. This high level group should be divided into sub-groups to examine the serving conditions of the Services in Siachen, the desert, the tropical jungles of the North-East, Jammu & Kashmir and North-East Frontier Agency and the plight of Ex-servicemen.

C. The equation with the Civil Services should be rectified.

D. The Supreme Commander, our President, should be apprised of these glaring deficiencies.

E. Early retirement ages should be compensated by lateral entry into the public sector.

F. All our TV channels should have a debate on this issue both in Hindi and English and the regional languages so that the person in the street is made aware of these disparities.

Xxxxxx

In these columns I have been highlighting the fundamental fact that the government of India after our Independence, right from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru till today, have been callously indifferent, wooden and insensitive towards the professional passions, feelings and emotions of our Armed Forces.


On the contrary, the British government were always noted for their informed understanding and consideration for their Armed Forces in India. Indian Army played a very important role during the Second World War in several war theatres outside India and more particularly in Europe. The Fourth, Eighth and Tenth Indian Divisions of the Indian Army played a very important role in the last two years of the War. For example, the stellar role played by the Indian Army in the capture of Rome, the Liberation of Florence and the breaking of the Gothic Line in 1944-45 will be inscribed on the pages of history forever.

In January 1946, it was clear to all concerned that the British Rule in India was going to come to an end, sooner than later. And yet, even at that moment, the British government did not fail in its duty of recording for posterity the great role played by the Indian Army in the Liberation of Rome and Italy. Recently I was fortunate to lay my hands upon a very rare and historic book, titled ‘THE TIGER TRIUMPHS, The Story of Three Great Divisions in Italy’ published in January 1946 by HIS MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA in New Delhi. I am presenting below the first cover page of this historic book:


Major General Mark W.Clark was the Divisional Commander in 1944-45 of the TRIO OF GREAT INDIAN DIVISIONS then fighting in Italy– The Fourth, Eighth and Tenth Divisions. He wrote an inspiring preface to the above book on 27 February 1945. I am presenting below the facsimile of the page that carried the preface of Major General Mark W Clark:

The following six soldiers who fought in Italy were awarded the Victoria Cross for Supreme Valour in battle. I am presenting their photographs from the book titled The Tiger Triumphs referred to above.

I have referred to the historic book brought out by the British government in India in January 1946 only to bring out the fact that the government of India after our Independence has been hell bent only on distorting or destroying our cultural and military history. The Congress Party after our Independence has believed only in this dangerous philosophy: ‘Who controls the Past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past’. The Indian Armed Forces, after our Independence fought valiantly in the 1948 War against Pakistan; in the 1962 War against China; in the 1965 War against Pakistan; in the 1971 War against Pakistan and finally in the 1999 Kargil War against Pakistan. Government of India has never brought out any report on these 5 major military operations after our Independence. This indifference is on account of supreme contempt successive Prime Ministers from the days of Nehru have had for the Armed Forces of India.

This terrible situation has not changed till today. Col Vasant Venugopal was a commanding officer of 9 Marathas. Under his command, the battalion killed nine Pakistani terrorists in Uri Sector of Jammu and Kashmir on 31 July 2007. He left behind his wife Subhashini, and daughters Rukmini, and Yashoda. Col Vasant Venugopal was awarded ‘The Ashok Chakra’. The Ashok Chakra is awarded for valour, courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the battlefield. It is the peace time equivalent of the Param Vir Chakra and is awarded for the ‘most conspicuous bravery’. When Col. Vasant Venugopal’s body was brought to Bangalore for cremation with full military honours, neither the then Chief Minister Kumaraswamy nor any of his Cabinet Ministers participated in the funeral. Thus they showed that they are only carrying on the ignoble tradition of contempt for the Armed Forces of India established by Jawaharlal Nehru and his successors.

Likewise, I can give another example. Major Manish Pitambare died fighting against the militants at Anantnag in South Kashmir in November 2006. When he was cremated with full military honours at Thane, the pseudo-secular mafia of mass media — both print and electronic media — not only completely blacked out the news about this funeral, but instead in a shameful manner presented a 24 hour news account of how and for what reason the ‘great’ film star Sanjay Dutt was acquitted of his TADA charges by a criminal court!

Our disgraceful Parliament was in session on that day. Most of our criminal MPs were more interested in discussing the acquittal of Sanjay Dutt than in the martyrdom of Major Manish Pitambare.

T.S. Elliot, the great English Poet, paid his tribute to the soldiers drawn from different countries who fought in several war theatres of Europe during Second World War, in these immortal lines:



A Man’s destination in his own village,
His own fire and his wife’s cooking,
To sit in front of his own door at sunset
And see his grandson and his neighbours’ grandson
Play in the dust together.
Scarred but secure he has many narratives
To repeat at the hour of conversation
(The warm, or the cool hour, according to the climate)
Of foreign men, who fought in foreign places,
Foreign to each other.
This was not your land or ours: But a village in the Midlands
And one in the five rivers, may have the same memories.
Let those who go home tell the same story of you——
OF ACTION WITH A COMMON PURPOSE, ACTIONNONE THE LESS FRUITFUL IF NEITHER YOU NOR I KNOW UNTIL THE JUDGEMENT AFTER DEATH, WHAT IS THE FRUIT OF ACTION

Admiral SM Nanda passes away...11 May 2009

12 May 2009, 0605 hrs IST, PTI
NEW DELHI: Former Naval chief Admiral S M Nanda, a veteran of the 1971 Indo-Pak war, died on Monday evening in the national capital.

93-year-old Nanda, a Padma Vibhushan award winner, was admitted to a city-based hospital on Monday morning and breathed his last around 11 pm. He is survived by his two sons and wife besides grandchildren, family sources said.

Nanda was admitted to Fortis, Vasant Kunj with complaints of fever and breathlessness, Navneet Singh, a physician of the hospital who treated the former Navy chief, said.

Nanda, who was awarded the Param Vishist Seva Medal (PVSM) and the Ati Vishist Seva Medal (AVSM) for his distinguished service, was appointed the Chief of Naval Staff on March 1, 1970. He retired in 1973.

His legendary command of the Navy during the 1971 Indo-Pak war and his success in steering it to a resounding victory is the high-water mark of the modern Indian Navy.

The funeral will take place on Saturday with full military honours at Brar Square Crematorium here at 1600 hrs.
Former Naval chief Admiral S M Nanda passes away
Read More:
Adm SM Nanda
bharat rakshak: Adm SM Nanda
The man who bombed Karachi


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Dear Friends,

Jai Hind.

I am sad to inform you that another Great Hero of the 1971 war, Admiral SM Nanda, Former CNS, passed away on 11 May 09, in Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi.
The funeral will be held today, 12 May 09, at 1600 hrs, at Brar Square, Cremation Ground, Delhi Cantt.

We pray to the Almighty to give peace to the departed soul and strength to all of us to bear this irreparable loss.

Those of you, who wish to write a Shradhanjli for Late Admiral Nanda, kindly send your Shradhanjli to Col James Kanagaraj, on email ID -

reportmysignalblogspot@gmail.com

All the Shradhanjlis received will be placed on our blog "Report My Signal - Shradhanjli" at http://reportmysignal-shradhanjli.blogspot.com/

In sorrow


Chander Kamboj.
---------
From: Arun Saigal saigal.arun@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Adm Nanda has passed away
To: "CS Kamboj" kamboj_cs@yahoo.co.in
Cc: "Col James" reportmysignalblogspot@gmail.com
Date: Tuesday, 12 May, 2009, 3:10 AM
The 94 year Admiral who was the navy chief in 1971 was living with his son Suresh Nanda at 4, Prithvi Raj Road, New Delhi 110011, Tel: (011) 23012502, 23013897, e-mail: ,
On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 12:49 AM, Arun Saigal wrote:

Regret to inform you Adm SM Nanda, former CNS (1971) passed away late last night (11may) at Fortis Hospital Vasant Kunj.
Funeral at Brar Square at 1600 hrs on Tues 12 May

Arun
(Cdr Arun Saigal)
-----------
THE END

Some moments at Dehra Dun on 11 May 2009 during Gen SK Sinha's visit

IESM meet at Dehra Dun..Gen Sinha and Gen Satbir on 11 May 2009

Gen Sinha at Dehra Dun


From: Brij Thapa col_thapa_engrs@hotmail.com

Subject: SUCCESSFUL MEETING OF DEHRADUN EX-SERVICEMAN WELFARE MEET ON 11 MAY 09

To: "Garhwal post (Shri L P Thapa)" lpthapa@yahoo.com , "Garhwal Post (Shri L P Thapa)" garhwalpost@gmail.com

Date: Monday, 11 May, 2009, 8:19 PM

DEHRADUN EX-SERVICEMAN WELFARE MEET ON 11 MAY 09

DEHRADUN EX-SERVICEMAN WELFARE MEET was held on 11 MAY 09 at Dehradun where Lt Gen(Retd) S K Sinha, PVSM Ex VCOAS, Ex-Governor J & K and Assam and Maj Gen(Retd) Satbir Singh SM, Vice Chairman IESM addressed the large gathering of ESM of Doon Valley on 6 CPC, welfare activities of ESM and on National Security.

Meeting was very successful as all agreed to support the Govt who is helping ESM i.e. BJP. Many senior veterans and families attended meeting. Meeting was attended by Lt Gen Anand Swarup, Lt Gen H B Kala, Lt Gen K K Khanna, Maj Gen Nandwani, Maj Gen Shamsher Singh, Brig K G Behl, President DESL, Col K L Dewan, Col T S Payal, Lt Col B M Thapa, Gen Secy DESL and many others.

Detail report will follow through Lt Gen K K Khanna & Col T S Payal.

Brij
(Lt Col B M Thapa, Retd)
Gen Secy DESL
IESM Member
Dehradun
----------
From: Chander Nandwani c.nandwani@rediffmail.com
Subject: Ex-Servicemen Meet at Dehra Dun
To: kamboj_cs@yahoo.co.in
Cc: kkkhanna46@yahoo.com, meenachander@rediffmail.com
Date: Monday, 11 May, 2009, 8:55 PM
Ex-Servicemen Meet at Dehra Dun

A mammoth meeting of the ex-servicemen was held at Dehra Dun on 11th May 2009. Gen S K Sinha, PVSM, AVSM - ex Governor of J&K, Assam, ambassador to Nepal, VCOAS and Gen Satbir Singh, SM, Vice President of IESM were the Chief Guest & Guest of Honour respectively.

Gen Sinha spoke at length about his experience as Governor of the most sensitive states where National Security was diluted under the UPA government.
Prior to that, Gen Satbir set the mood of the audience with his par excellence oratory skills, wherein he exhorted the ex-servicemen to come forward in large numbers to vote for the party who cared to look after their interests. He stated that the BJP has assured us in their manifesto that they would grant OROP to the defence personnel within 100 days of coming to power, which was earlier rejected by the present UPA government. Therefore, in fitness of things we should support the BJP party which has cared to listen to us.

Both Gen Sinha and Satbir were applauded throughout their talk with standing ovation. The audience included ‘who-is-who’ of the veterans settled at Dehra Dun. The prominent figures amongst the audience were Air Marshal Sen and Gens HB Kala, Shamsher Singh, Anand Swaroop, KK Khanna to name a few. The entire event was covered by a very large number of correspondents of the print and electronic media.

ECHS is a Dud ...: Revisted

Thu, May 08, 2008

New Delhi: With the Sixth Pay Commission grouse still fresh, here is another grim reminder of the an initiative meant for the welfare of ex-servicemen virtually on the brink of a collapse.

Meet Col Jitendar Singh. He served the country with pride for decades, wearing his beloved olive greens, secure in the belief that he would be taken care of in his older days. But today, the critically ill Colonel is among India's two million ex-servicemen and their families have nowhere to go. With the ambitious Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme on the brink of collapse, their only hope is shattered.

“Gangrene had not set in then. It set after the delay from Apollo hospital’s end. And when we said we are ECHS members, they said we are now cut off from ECHS,” he said.

The reason for his agony is that leading hospitals have pulled out of the ECHS because of enormous outstanding payments. “Bills take ages to get cleared. This scheme will die its natural death,” says VP Operations, Fortis Hospital, Jasbir Grewal.

The Army itself admits that the health scheme needs life support. It acknowledges that routine bills take two to three months for clearance. Bills over Rs 5 lakh require Defence Ministry’s approval, which takes a minimum of 6 months. Only six lakh out of 20 lakh ex-servicemen have enlisted reflecting lack of confidence in the scheme.

The abysmally low payment rates of Central Government Health Scheme to which the scheme is tied rule out quality medical care. “Hospitals have always been loathe to accept these rates. I can’t understand why army cant have its own rates,” says former MD, ECHS, Maj. Gen. Kuldip Sindhu.

It's a "crying emergency" situation for ECHS. After 5 years of completion it was expected of the scheme to have over come the difficulties in its implementation but the disharmony between the hands holding the scheme together has only become more conspicuous over these years.

Special: Govt health scheme for ex-servicemen a dud

Comment: Has ECHS moved forward resolving the teething problems in the last one year? Certainly a big "NO". In fact the constraints are growing greater and efficiency and ESM satisfaction on rapid downslide. ECHS will ulitimately collapse under its own bureaucratic hurdles and cobweb of rules and regulations. The Polyclinic's notice boards are filled with chunk of Letters in English which is hardly read by any sane ESM and those not conversant with English are saved the agony of understanding them!

Visit to Bareilly ..Maj Gen AJB Jaini 08 May 2009

FIRST INFORMATION REPORT -'

Dear Friends,

As a Member of the IESM Core Gp & Steering Committee, I, along with Col R.L.Goel ( Member IESM ), had the proud priveledge on behalf of the IESM to Chair a Press Conf @ BAREILLY on 8th May.

We were there to announce, express & disseminate the support of IESM to the BJP candidate, of Bareilly Constituency.

Shri Santosh Gangwar - BJP, a SEVENTH time experienced politician & Ex Petroleum Minister, is the candidate whome we are supporting. He is a SURE SHOT WINNER fm Bareilly.

A VERY LARGE gathering of both Print & Visual Media reps attended. Most heartening is the fact that reps of ALL leading Media Houses of U.P were present. During the Conf, our IESM stand was explained.

During the Q/A Session, some pressmen queried whether the Defence pers had become ' Naitik' - meaning ' Political '. The Q was welcomed & clarrified as follows;-

1. IESM CONTINUES to be ' APOLITICAL ' , & any impressions to the contrary would be incorrect.
2. Being ' Politically Wise ' was NOT being ' Political '.
3. Being ' Politically Aware' was NOT being ' Political '.
4. ESM have now realised the POWER of their VOTE.
5. IESM is only being ' Politically Correct '
6. ESM WILL vote for the Party which assures & promises to take care of ESM WELFARE, as THAT is the MAIN AIM of our ' Movement'.

The Media applauded our practical approach & view. Our logical ' Stand ' was very well received & much appreciated by them, as could be clearly discerned from their TOTAL AGREEMENT to the Decision taken by IESM.

Since we had the time & opportunity, we had asked the BJP workers @ Bareilly to also collect as many ESM from nearby areas, as possible . A large gathering had collected at the venue. They were separately addressed & explained the happenings/ progress of the ' Movement '. It was most heartening to see their sense of satisfaction in the expression of their TOTAL ENDORSEMENT.

Despite the Stiffling Heat of the day - further heated up due to the Political Temp !, the Press Conf was a ' Great ' SUCCESS.

Maj Gen A.J.B. Jaini, AVSM, ( Veteran )
Member Core Gp of IESM
9810180189

Disability, war injury pension revised

NEW DELHI:

Announcing yet another sop for armed forces right in the middle of elections, the UPA government on Tuesday hiked disability and family
pension benefits across the board for those injured or killed in battle.

As reported earlier, the government has been rattled by BJP's strong `Jai Jawan' tune in its manifesto and now wants to regain lost ground in the tussle to woo the defence community of 14 lakh serving and 23 lakh retired military personnel, which expands into a sizable votebank of around 1.5 crore people if family members are taken into account.

The defence ministry on Tuesday said "the rates of disability element for 100% disability for various ranks shall now be 30% of emoluments last drawn subject to minimum of Rs 3,100 per month for 100% disability".

"For disability less than 100%, it shall be reduced proportionately. In cases of disability pension where permanent disability is not less than 60%, the disability pension shall not be less than 60% of the reckonable emoluments last drawn subject to a minimum of Rs 7,000 per month," said an official.
Govt hikes disability, family pension for armed forces

MoD raises disability pension bar
New Delhi | Tuesday, May 5 2009 IST
The Ministry of Defence has revised pensionary awards relating to disability pension or war injury pension, special family pension for those Armed Forces personnel dying in harness or retiring or rendered invalid with effect from January 2006, following the Sixth Pay panel's recommendations.

The rates of disability element for 100 per cent disability for various ranks shall be 30 per cent of emoluments last drawn subject to minimum of Rs 3,100 per month. For disability less than 100 per cent it shall be reduced proportionately, ministry sources said. In cases of disability pension where permanent disability is not less than 60 per cent, the disability shall not be less than 60 per cent of the emoluments last drawn, subject to a minimum of Rs 7,000 per month.

The rates of war injury element for 100 per cent disability for various ranks shall be equal to the reckonable emoluments last drawn which would be proportionately reduced where disability is less than 100 per cent. However in no case, aggregate of service element and war injury should exceed the emoluments last drawn.

Constant attendance allowance will be admissible at a uniform rate of Rs 3000 per month, irrespective of the rank. Further this rate be increased by 25 per cent every time the dearness allowance is revised by 50 per cent.

The Ministry has also revised casualty pensionary awards for Armed Forces personnel, who retired, discharged or were rendered invalid prior to January 2006.-(UNI) --
MoD raises disability pension bar
Related Reading:
The announcement comes even as the 15th Lok Sabha elections are in progress, and this is the fifth in a slew of welfare measures since April 21 that could impact the career, pay and perks of the 1.5-million-strong armed forces jawans and officers.
Govt hikes disability, family pension for armed forces: PTI
Disability, war injury pension revised

Mandate 2009: BJP's Turnaround

Vikas Gupta writes in The Times of India:

Suddenly, there’s a buzz within the BJP. The flagging campaign has been re-energised, and there’s a spring in the step of workers. The party believes that it has put up a strong show in the first three phases of polling, and is now banking on Rajasthan, one of its traditional strongholds, to deliver Delhi to it.

Why has this turnaround happened? Frankly, I have no clue about what is influencing rural voters. But when I speak to middle-class voters, it seems to me that the BJP campaign has struck a chord on at least three issues – which most political pundits seem to have missed.

To begin with, the BJP’s focus on unemployment and job losses seems to be resonating with middle India, which is in the midst of its first major encounter with lay-offs and downsizing. The Congress can argue – with some justification – that it cannot be blamed for a global recession and that India is, in fact, faring better than the rest of the world. Unfortunately for it, people who are scared and insecure are rarely in a mood to listen to logic. The BJP’s promise to exempt tax on income up to Rs 3 lakh has also gone down well with the educated middle-class – which, in any case, is convinced that it gets very little in return for the hard-earned money that it pays as tax.

Finally, the BJP’s promise to introduce one rank, one pay and give tax sops to the defence forces is likely to earn it goodwill and votes from both serving and retired personnel, who otherwise tend to be largely indifferent to the electoral process.
BJP's Turnaround

Making Sense of the UPA Rule and the Need for Change by Shyam Sekhar
LOOKING THE OTHER WAY WHEN ALLIES ERRED
In its anxiety to keep allies happy, the congress gave away key ministries to allies. These ministries were managing the Nation’s growth engines like Roads, Ports, IT, Telecom and Environment management. The damage which has been done to the nation will take a long time to mend. Five years is a long time and we could have had much faster development if these ministries where in better and cleaner hands. The congress did nothing to mend the situation during its entire five year term and Sonia was a silent spectator. Some ministers from the allies’ parties deserve special mention.

Maran, Baalu and Raaja are three DMK ministers who have virtually lorded over IT & Telecom, Surface Transport, Environment & Forests. These critical ministries performance over the past five years must be compared with the NDA rule when these ministries had Arun Shourie and BC Khanduri as the Ministers. Need one say more. We are consciously omitting any reference to Anbumani Ramadoss in Health Ministry.
Read full text: Making Sense of the UPA Rule and the Need for Change by Shyam Sekhar

Forgotten KArgil...by Shishir Gupta

Forgotten Kargil

Shishir Gupta

Posted online: Wednesday, May 06, 2009

New Delhi : Learning the hard way, the Indian politician has now realized that wars and terror attacks cannot be used as an opposition stick to beat the incumbent. Congress used it in Kargil and lost the 1999 elections to NDA and the BJP lost Delhi Assembly elections by using 26/11 to bludgeon the UPA.

Both the main stream parties have now realized that Indians have an uncanny habit of uniting in wake of an internal security crisis and equate legitimate criticism to sleeping with the enemy. Hence, a suitably chastened politician on both sides has made national security an issue without frontly attacking each other on the two major upheavals in the past. Little wonder the LS 2009 political campaign has fallen back on bread and butter issues such as economy and governance.


Much as we Indians like to don Bollywood style patriotism, mounting internal security threat to the country cannot be swept under the carpet purely on the grounds that it does not make a political issue.


The huge gap between Indian capacity and its response as illustrated during Kargil and 26/11 makes the citizens all the more vulnerable. But have we learnt a lesson from these historical blunders? The answer is a flat no.


Exactly a decade ago, on May 3, 1999, a patrol of III Punjab battalion of the Indian Army for the first time sighted 3-4 Pakistani intruders dressed in black in Yaldor area of the Kargil sector. On May 9, 1999, the Intelligence Bureau, according to Army records, identified them as the Taliban and two days later Operation Vijay was launched.


Although the then Defence Minister (like Home Minister in 26/11) went public saying that intruders would be thrown in hours, it took the might of Indian military to evict the intruders in 45 days at the loss of nearly 600 precious lives.


Many a corrective measures were taken post Kargil with Groups of Ministers looking into various aspects of national security reforms on the basis of Subrahmanyam Committee report.

One such group, headed by Rajiv Gandhi’s Minister of State for Defence Arun Singh, looked into the critical aspects of higher defence management and came up with radical solutions to reform the military. It is a shame that ten years down the line, the political leadership has only taken half-baked measures to reform the defence establishment. This half-hearted response was partly responsible for 26/11.


Consider this:


The Arun Singh Committee had recommended creation for Chief of Defence Staff, a single point military advisor to the Indian government, with an integrated headquarters functioning under him. Thanks to the phobia of a military takeover since the days of Jawahar Lal Nehru, the CDS has not been appointed to date but an orphan integrated services headquarter has been set up that is headed by an over the hill three star officer. And the Chiefs of Staff meeting are reduced, as always, to coffee break sessions.


It was decided that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)’s 50 odd laboratories would be synergized with Defence PSUs in order to allow faster provider-consumer response and transfer of technology. In simple terms the DRDO’s LRDE lab would be merged with BEL PSU so that there is dedicated development of military related electronics under specific time schedules. A rather uninterested government could not contain the turf war between the DRDO and the PSUs and the result is that the DRDO has literally produced nothing more than Leh Berry juice and grown cauliflowers in Ladakh desert. All the major projects from LCA to Main Battle Tank to Missiles have gone into overruns at humungous costs with little or no accountability from either the DRDO or the PSUs.


An umbrella Defence Intelligence Agency was set-up under the integrated headquarters as a single window for military intelligence. Today, the DIA is virtually a garbage collector of all non-actionable intelligence originated from the intelligence wings of the three services, which have grown in size and manpower since Kargil, respectively. This manifested in the Indian Navy not sharing the intelligence on 26/11 LeT ship with its own Western Navy what to talk of the Coast Guard.


The higher defence management group had also recommended that Commander-in-Chiefs in the three services should be selected on merit with the board under the CDS having a final say rather than on the basis of seniority and residual service. Thanks to its non-implementation, the C-in-Cs are even today appointed at the whim and fancies of either the Service Chief or an intrusive Defence Minister.


Last but not the least, the Director General of Armed Forces Medical Services was to be put under CDS to streamline the health services. However, till today, the Ministry of Defence has held that order under ambiguous abeyance. The result is that the top military medic does not report to the integrated headquarters but to Defence Ministry. This leads to politicians like Arjun Singh frequently getting admitted to military facilities like R & R hospital in Delhi.


Kargil is gone so are heroes of that war. To make the matters worse even the lessons have been either been largely ignored or unlearnt with every passing day. With India so engrossed in this month long election mela, the ogre of Taliban raising its head in Buner and Swat is largely confined to TRPs of TV channels.

The insularity of national security from national politics has ensured that we even forget that the first flag of Wahhabism of the kind practised by current day Taliban against the ruling British in the 19th century was raised at Buner, Swat and Malakand by Indians from Bihar and Bengal.

India's Fauj by Maj Gen SG Vombatkere

INDIA’S FAUJ

Who rules it?

By

Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere (Retd)**

Many people agree in private but (especially those in power) refuse to admit in public that the Indian Defence Forces comprising the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force (or, briefly, India’s “fauj”) are not treated fairly by government. Of course, there is the fringe opinion that the fauj lives in luxury and is even overpaid, when they observe things like availability of canteen facilities (especially liquor) and the period of leave admissible in a year. They obviously know nothing at all about the risks and hardships that Jawans and young officers face in daily life.
But what risk does the fauj face in peacetime? Actually the word “peacetime” used as the antonym of “wartime” is quite inappropriate, because even if India is not at war with any country, the conditions of service in countering insurgency are just as risky as any wartime deployment if not actually more so. Today, the fauj loses on average one man every day to militant action. And hardship? Even if the subhuman conditions of mere survival on the Siachen Glacier are omitted, there are severe hardships, both physical and mental, in manning posts on the borders and even in participation in military exercises from bases in “peace stations”.
The fauj consists of about 1.4 million personnel below officer rank (PBOR), with leadership provided by about 50,000 officers instead of 65,000 required, the greatest shortage (11,238 against 46,615 sanctioned) being in the army. The actual fighting is done by the PBOR but under the leadership of officers who, in the Indian fauj, have always led from the front, as statistics of officer versus PBOR casualties in operations have always shown. But without PBOR there would be no need for officers and without leadership, PBOR would be ineffective – it is the combination of the two with the right kind of weaponry, equipment, training, and motivation that can maintain India’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, the primary responsibility of the fauj. It is said that the man behind the gun is at least as important as the gun itself, which means to say that superior military technology by itself may win battles but cannot win wars unless the fauji (the soldier, a generic term that includes PBOR and officers of the Army, Navy and Air Force) is adequately equipped, trained and motivated. The examples of the US military in Vietnam and in Afghanistan and Iraq bear testimony to this military truth.
The important factor is that of motivation. It is not easily comprehensible to a civilian that motivation is essential to a fauji to fight when ordered and risk life or serious permanent disability. Motivation comes from a combination of regimental spirit, confidence in leadership and training, and most importantly from self-esteem that comes from the way in which the fauji is treated within the service and also outside in “civvy street”, both when in service and after retirement. Here, “treated” means and includes how much he is paid, what perks he receives and how he is treated by government officials when he is on duty and on leave in official and personal dealings. When the present writer was a young officer in the 1960s, a letter to the DC requesting expeditious disposal of a Jawan’s application was sometimes honoured. The need for such a letter itself showed that disposal of faujis’ applications received little attention, but at least a young officer’s letter received some attention. However in the 1990s, even personal meeting with civilian officials when I was much senior in rank (again not requesting a favour but only for just disposal) did not have much effect. This demonstrates how bureaucrats’ treatment of faujis has deteriorated over the years. This is not to say that all bureaucrats are insensitive to the fauj, since there are notable exceptions, but they are few and far between. So, the deterioration is not merely at individual levels, but is at system level.
This is borne out by some cases that I handled when I was Additional DG in charge of Discipline & Vigilance at Army HQ in the 1990s, and which will bear quoting as examples. In July 1995, Lt Bhaduria who visited the office of DC Bomdila in connection with a court case, sought appointment with the DC from the PA who asked him to come later, and when he came later, was indifferent and then rude, declining to give an appointment. Later, he was shouted at by the DC because he had told the DC’s PA to speak with due respect, and when he tried to explain the matter to the DC, he was ordered to leave the DC’s office and was served with an order fining him Rs.1,000 and in default, simple imprisonment of one month. Whether this case was resolved or not, it is quoted to show the attitude of bureaucrats and even their minor functionaries towards faujis. The firing by police at unarmed army leave personnel (resulting in death of two Jawans) at Lumding railway station in June 1993, and the kidnapping and murder of two children of a Havildar at Golconda in January 1994, both widely reported in the media, and the devious and delaying action by bureaucracy and police in both cases further demonstrate their attitude. It is too easy to blame senior officers in the fauj for not taking up these cases forcefully, but the sense of justice and national interest among the “steel frame” has never been to the extent that they would hold one of their own clan guilty. These cases and others taken up with state and central governments bear witness to the low esteem in which bureaucrats hold the fauj in general. This cannot be in the national interest. (Details of the three cases as recalled are below).
What is not understood by bureaucrats is that such treatment of faujis, far from merely causing them hardship, actually demotivates them. Today the Jawan knows that his officer can do little for him in his personal affairs as shown in the above cases. Thus the leadership of the fauji officer is limited to the four walls of the Army Act (or Navy or Air Force Act) and even this is eroded when government summarily dismisses a Chief of Staff. This is not to say that the cabinet is not supreme – it is, and should remain so – but it is to regret the lack of understanding of leadership issues as they concern the fauj at the highest political and bureaucratic levels, since Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat could just as easily have been discreetly ordered to resign rather than crudely dismissed, with negative repercussions on fauji morale.
The latest in the series of insensitive handling of matters fauji is the 6th CPC. While it is not the argument that salary is the most important cause to bring youth into the fauj or cause for officers leaving it as soon as convenient, it cannot be denied that it is a very important factor. When the single largest component of government servants is the fauj, repeated requests of various Service Chiefs over the decades to include a fauji as member in the Central Pay Commission have systematically been ignored or denied on the pretext that other sections of government servants will demand representation. The questions here are why should there not be representation of various sections, and why should bureaucrats represent everybody. It does not require superior intelligence to understand that is how bureaucrats retain hold of power and control in the country to the exclusion of other sectors. While it is true that the fauj must remain under civilian control, this must mean under control of the Cabinet and not under bureaucratic control, as it happens in practice.
We thus come to the oft repeated equivalence of faujis with bureaucrats. But before that, consider the “sub-bureaucratic” levels. Bureaucrats and politicians do not recognize that the PBOR fauji is a skilled worker, trained in a specialist job, exposed to hardship and risk far more than any civilian is expected to do as part of his duty. Thus he receives salary and pension less than a Grade IV employee and is treated shabbily by the civilian hierarchy, even though he is the backbone of the fauj and retires even before he is age 40 because of the necessity of keeping the fauj physically fit. Reverting to the officer cadre, fauji officers are equated with bureaucracy based upon salary. 90% of fauji officers do not pass the pay scale of Colonel, and a Brigadier with 24 years military experience is “equivalent” to an IAS man with 14 years of service, who is age-wise on par with a Lt Col under his command. Also, a Major General with 32 years of service becomes equivalent to a Joint Secretary years junior in age and service. Additionally, a point routinely (and may I suggest, deliberately) glossed over by bureaucracy is that only 1.5% of officers attain the rank of Major General because of the vitally necessary pyramidal structure of the fauj while 80% of bureaucrats become Joint Secretaries. These are all demotivating factors that insidiously affect functioning of the fauj in its internal command and control. It cannot be in the best interest of the nation if the guardians of its territorial integrity and sovereignty are treated with injustice to keep them inferior in status.
The question that arises here is what is the responsibility of the elected executive and the highest legislative body in safeguarding the interests of the nation by allowing bureaucratic control over an important body like the CPC? If bureaucracy is primarily responsible in this continuing injustice, then we need to ask whether the national interest is decided by bureaucrats or by the elected representatives of the people. What is needed for a start is pay and allowances to faujis de-linked from bureaucratic equivalence, in full recognition of the services that they render and the supreme sacrifice that they are expected to make, especially at the PBOR and junior-to-middle-rung officer levels, and “one-rank-one-pension” for retired faujis. Mollifying a few dozen generals, admirals and air marshals at the top by equating their salary with top bureaucrats cannot compensate for gross injustice done to the majority at the bottom of the pyramid.
The fall in the formal status of the fauj over the years is indicated by the falling order of precedence accorded to the Service Chiefs over the years. This fall in status of the top-most officers translates down to the lowest levels, resulting in lowered morale and self-esteem which are essential for a fauji to be effective in operations. There exists a kind of political blindness especially considering that while the militaries of neighbouring countries have been interfering in their nation’s politics, our fauj has remained apolitical as it should. It is vital for the long-term survival of India as a nation under the Constitution of India for the leaders at centre and state levels to recognize that on an average, some component of the fauj has been called to perform its secondary role in aid to civil power at some place in India once in four days (4 days), and ponder over why this should be necessary if bureaucracy and police perform their primary tasks. By its composition and performance record, the fauj is the last bastion of discipline and secularism in India that our leaders can only neglect, or worse still erode, at great peril to the nation.
(1,896 words of text)
________________________________________________________________­______
Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in December 1962 and held the position of Addl DG (Discipline & Vigilance) at Army HQ, New Delhi, from which he retired in September 1996. In 1993, the President of India awarded him the Visishta Seva Medal (VSM) for distinguished services rendered in Ladakh.
Contact details:
475, 7th Main Road // Vijayanagar 1st Stage // Mysore-570017
Tel: 0821-2515187 E-mail: sgvombatkere@hotmail.com
_____________________________________________________________________________

THREE CASE STUDIES

CASE STUDY 1
ILL TREATMENT OF AN ARMY OFFICER BY DC BOMDILA AND HIS STAFF

Lt Bhadauria and Capt Kapte, both of an infantry unit visited the DC's office at Bomdila in connection with a court case in July 1995 and approached the PA to the DC for an appointment with the DC. The PA asked the offrs to come after the lunch break, which they did. On requesting again for the appointment with DC the PA behaved in an indifferent manner and asked them to wait further. Bomdila is a hill station and since the weather was getting cloudy and the officers were to return to their unit, they once again requested the PA after about an hour for an early appointment with the DC. But the PA was very rude and used derogatory remarks to the effect that he was not a servant of army persons. Lt AS Bhadauria was agitated with such remarks and asked the PA to mind his language. Capt Kapte intervened to end the altercation. However, both the officers heard the PA saying to another person that he would ensure that the case file did not move easily.
Just before the office closed, the officers were called into the DC’s office. As soon as Lt Bhadauria entered the DC's office, the DC shouted at him, asking how he had dared to teach manners to his PA and whether it was the responsibility of the army to ensure discipline and etiquette of his staff. At this Lt Bhadauria tried to explain what had transpired between him and the PA. However, the DC refused to listen to him and asked him to leave his office, adding that he cared little for army persons and that he normally allowed only officers of the rank of Colonel to enter his office. Lt Bhadauria found it difficult to digest the insulting and derogatory remarks about the army, and suggested to the DC to speak in a manner befitting his position and office. At this stage, Capt Kapte intervened and instructed Lt Bhadauria to leave the office and wait outside.
The DC subsequently handed over to Capt Kapte an order passed by him fining Lt Bhaduaria Rs.1,000/- failing which he was to undergo simple imprisonment of one month. Capt Kapte approached the DC the next day and requested him to reconcile the issue. But the DC refused to reconsider the issue or discuss the subject any further.
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CASE STUDY 2
FIRING AT ARMY PERSONNEL BY POLICE

On the night of 23/24 June 1993, an Army party of about 175 personnel, proceeding on leave/temporary duty was travelling by Kamrup Express from Dimapur to Guwahati. At about 9:340 P.M, when the train arrived at Lumding Railway Station, four personnel of the Excise Department and GRPF entered the Army compartment to carry out search of the personnel. The Army personnel, after disclosing their identity, requested the Excise Department personnel and the GRPF that the search be carried out either in the presence of Military Police or Senior Police Officials. The Excise staff did not agree to this, and they insisted on carrying out the search forcibly with the help of GRPF Jawans. This led to an altercation. GRPF called for reinforcements and began wielding their lathis on the soldiers who had gathered on the railway platform. The Army soldiers, who were unarmed, were completely surprised and shocked at this behaviour of GRPF personnel. They tried to protect themselves from the lathis, and a scuffle ensued, and Nb Sub Randhir Singh received a lathi blow on his head.
As the scuffle/lathi charge continued, some personnel of the Assam Police, who had occupied two rooms of the First Class Waiting Room located opposite the Army compartment, opened fire with their weapons. On hearing the sound of firing, the Army personnel ran into the bogies for safety. Nb Sub Randhir Singh was again injured by a bullet in his right leg, while rushing into the compartment. Soon thereafter a long whistle was sounded which was followed by switching off the lights in the Railway Station.
The Police personnel then came out of the Waiting Room, closed in on to the bogie which was checked earlier by the Excise personnel and continued firing. One of the policemen smashed the windowpane of the compartment of the bogie with his rifle butt and pointed his weapon at L/Nk Ilangovan. Though he pleaded his innocence, the policeman fired at him twice at point blank range, resulting in his death. L/Nk Jeet Singh, who was sitting in the same bogie received four bullet wounds on his legs while he was trying to climb onto an upper berth to save himself from the police firing. In the adjacent bogie, Rfn Vikram Singh died on the spot and Nk Hira Singh received bullet injuries on his legs.
On-the-Spot Inquiry.
An On-the-Spot Inquiry was conducted by SDM, Hojai, corroborating the details of the incident as related above. Twenty-six bullet marks were identified on the Military compartment.
Departmental Inquiry by the Army.
Station Headquarters, Dimapur, ordered a Court of Inquiry mainly to ascertain attributability of death and injury to Army personnel, and the Inquiry was completed in September 1993.
First Joint Inquiry.
The Governor and the Chief Minister of Assam were informed about the high-handedness, the unprovoked firing and excessive use of force by Assam Police on unarmed Army personnel. A Joint Inquiry headed by Shri Mishra, the Commissioner of Upper Assam Division, Jorhat as Chairman, and Brig Virender Kumar as the Army member, was ordered by Govt of Assam in August 1993. However, the Commissioner avoided meeting Brig Virender Kumar and insisted that he forward the Army's findings of the incident. This was not provided to the Chairman by the Army as premature disclosure of the Army's findings might lead to finalization of the findings of the Joint Inquiry without affording fair chance to the Army member to cross-examine the witnesses. Since the Inquiry was not progressing due to the uncooperative attitude, particularly of the Chairman, a case was taken up with Govt of Assam.
Second Joint Inquiry.
As a consequence, the earlier Inquiry ordered was cancelled, and a fresh Inquiry was ordered by the State Government in April 1994 with Shri Carae, IAS, Commissioner North Assam Division, Tejpur, as Chairman, and Brigadier Virender Kumar as member. It was decided that comments on the incident be prepared separately by the Army and Civil authorities. The Army member prepared his comments and forwarded them to the Chairman during October 1994. The Chairman was requested to forward the civil version of the incident to the Army, which he refused, also saying that the Government of Assam had not agreed to the separate findings of the Joint Inquiry. The Chairman was again approached by Army authorities in January 1995 regarding progress of the Inquiry. During discussions it came to light that the State Govt had not accepted the Army version. The Army authorities again contacted the Chief Minister during February 1995 for early action on the Inquiry.
Third (One-Man) Inquiry.
In February 1995, the Second Joint Inquiry mentioned above was dissolved and a One-man Inquiry under Shri Kubilan, IAS, Development Commissioner, was instituted by the State Govt in March 1995, requiring that the Inquiry be completed within 30 days. The Inquiry by the State Government of Assam had not even commenced even after nearly 2 years of the incident. With a view to obtain early and appropriate justice to the soldiers, the case was forwarded to the Ministry of Defence for onward submission to NHRC in June 1995. The Ministry of Defence, instead of forwarding it to NHRC, referred the case to Ministry of Home Affairs asking them about the desirability of referring the complaint to NHRC. This action of the Ministry of Defence was against natural justice since the complaint was against an organ of the Ministry of Home Affairs itself. Accordingly, the Adjutant General addressed a DO letter to the Defence Secretary, requesting that the complaint be forwarded to NHRC at the earliest, but there was no response from Ministry of Defence. In the meantime, the Third (One-man) Inquiry Committee forwarded its recommendations to the Govt of Assam, recommending action against one Excise Inspector, one Platoon Commander and two constables of the Assam Police, and compensation of Rs.2 lakhs each to the Next of Kin of the two Jawans killed and Rs.1 lakh each to four Jawans injured. However, implementation of the recommendations is not known.
The Army expected and hoped that justice would be done by the Civil Administration and Police to identify the police personnel who fired and killed/wounded unarmed Army personnel, and taking strict criminal action taken against them. However, there had been deliberate prevarication by the bureaucracy of the State of Assam. Army personnel are increasingly of the view that in dealings with civil administration, they are always at a disadvantage and that this is part of the attitude of Civil Administration and/or the Police Forces in general. There is a strong undercurrent of resentment in this regard, which makes the secondary-role deployment of Army units difficult on tasks which are the primary responsibility of the Police Forces. At the same time, defaulters among Army personnel deployed in counter insurgency operations, other aid to Civil power as well as incidents involving other authorities like Police, Railways, etc., are brought to book and punished expeditiously, while little or no action is taken against police personnel involved even in serious cases.
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CASE STUDY 3
INCIDENT OF KIDNAPPING AND MURDER OF ARMY CHILDREN AT GOLCONDA, HYDERABAD

Two children of Havildar Rawat of an infantry unit stationed at Golconda were found missing on 31 January 1994. After carrying out a search of the unit and adjoining areas, the unit lodged a FIR with the Langar Houz Police Station. There was a difference of opinion between the Army and the Police regarding the case being registered as one of kidnapping or of missing persons. The Army suspected the hand of a Police Sub-Inspector and his brother in the kidnapping, and this was brought to the notice of the police. A couple of days later, the unit was informed that the mutilated bodies of the two children were found floating in a well behind the Golconda Military Hospital. Postmortem examination of the deceased children was conducted by the civil authorities, and later again by Army authorities. The results of the Postmortem examinations were not in agreement with each other regarding the cause of death.
On seeing the mutilated condition of the bodies of the children, the sentiments of the unit persons were aroused and a few personnel of the unit rushed to the Police Station. Altercations and a scuffle took place, resulting in a few policemen getting injured. A little later, some houses in the civil area adjoining the Army Lines caught fire, which was brought under control with the help of army personnel.
A Joint Inquiry Committee (JIC) with Army and Police members was ordered by the Govt of Andhra Pradesh, and its report was submitted in March 1994. The Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh held a meeting of Civil and Army officials soon after, to discuss the JIC Report, and the recommendations of the JIC Report were accepted. It was agreed that disciplinary action would be taken against the errant police officials, the Army authorities would take disciplinary action against errant army personnel, and that the case of kidnapping and death of the children and the incident of fire to the civilian houses would be handed over to the CBI for investigation.

Action against Police Personnel
The Joint Inquiry Committee blamed some police personnel for various lapses and recommended departmental disciplinary/administrative action against one DCP, one ACP, four policemen, one Fire Officer and the Medical Officer of Osmania Hospital who carried out the postmortem examination of the two children. On Army’s persistent requests regarding the action taken against the indicted persons, the State Govt stated that one ACP and three policemen had been warned to be careful and guard against such lapses in future, one policeman was awarded censure, and instructions had been issued for action to be taken against the Fire Officer by the concerned Department. It is noteworthy that the Civil authorities had used the word "lapses" when the acts were of a criminal nature, and the punishments awarded were not commensurate with the serious nature of the crimes. It also appeared that no action was contemplated taken against the other two indicted persons, namely the DCP and the Medical Officer.

Action against Army Personnel
On the other hand, the action taken against army personnel involved was comprehensive and fast.
(a) Officers: Lt Col Katkar and Maj Sethi were awarded Reproof.
(b) JCOs: Sub Maj Prem Singh, was awarded Severe Reprimand.
(c) ORs
(i) Nk Govind Singh Awarded Severe Reprimand
(ii) Nk Kushla Nand Awarded Severe Reprimand
(iii) L/Nk Sujan Singh Awarded Reprimand
(iv) L/Nk Kamal Singh Awarded Reprimand
(v) L/Nk Than Singh Awarded Reprimand
(vi) L/Nk Hukam Chand Awarded Reprimand
(vii) L/Nk Dalvir Singh Awarded Reprimand
(viii)Rfn Ghanshyam Awarded 14 days detention
(ix) Rfn Manwar Singh Awarded 07 days RI(rigorous imprisonment)
(x)
...

Attack on Army...Tamil Nadu....

From: Sandhya Jain sandhya206@bol.net.in
Subject: Tamil Secessionists' attack on Army Convoy - Beginning of Anarchy-B R Haran-7 May 2009
To: "Arun Shourie" ashourie@sansad.nic.in
Date: Thursday, 7 May, 2009, 10:39 AM
Vijayvaani.com
http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=555

Tamil Secessionists' attack on Army Convoy - Beginning of Anarchy
B R Haran
7 May 2009

In a shocking incident on the evening of Saturday, 2 May, several hundred hooligans belonging to the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) attacked an Army convoy on the Nilambur Bypass Road near Coimbatore . Around 300 army personnel were returning from Hyderabad after completing a three-month training camp, to their headquarters at Madukkarai in Coimbatore via Salem .

Early in the morning, when the convoy of over fifty trucks was passing through Salem, the MDMK and PDK cadres along with goons of Tamil-chauvinist and pro-LTTE outfits like Tamil Desiya Iyakkam and Thamizhaga Ilaignar Iyakkam, attempted to block the bypass, charging that the tanks, weapons, arms and ammunition were being transported to Sri Lanka to aid the Sri Lankan army in its war against the LTTE. Only the timely intervention of the Salem police thwarted attempts to attack the convoy; the police convinced the PDK and MDMK hooligans that the army personnel were returning with only their personal belongings after completing training in Hyderabad .

The unruly mob then spread the word about the travelling army convoy to their cadre in Coimbatore , who now lay in wait for the convoy to reach Coimbatore . In this well-planned plot to attack the army, hundreds of cadres belonging to these parties assembled on the Nilambur bypass road pretending to stage a demonstration. The media, with prior information about the impending clash, gathered to cover the so-called protest demonstration, but did not bother to caution the police.

Despite an alert from the Salem police, the Coimbatore police were not adequately prepared to deal with what followed. The first five trucks were stopped, attacked, tyres deflated, personal belongings like bedrolls, trunk boxes, tents and clothing thrown on the ground and set on fire in wanton destruction. One driver was grievously assaulted. The army personnel ran away to inform the trucks following behind. Other army personnel, who came rushing on hearing about the attack, took safe custody of the weapons, according per eye-witnesses. The witnesses reported retaliation in defense by the army personnel.

Senior police officers arrived with the Rapid Action Force and Armed Reserve Police to control the situation and pacify the army personnel. Some media persons and civilians were allegedly hurt in the melee. Coimbatore police arrested 18 cadres belonging to MDMK, PDK and PUCL and registered cases against them under Sections 147 (unlawful assembly), 148 (unlawful assembly with deadly weapons), 324 (causing grievous hurt) and 294 (b) (using obscene language) of IPC. Members of various media organisations demonstrated against the army personnel for allegedly attacking some of them. They demanded the case be investigated by local police and not referred to Army authorities; hence police registered cases against twenty army personnel as well. Clearly, as in the case of the lawyers’ attack against the police, a section of the media is allied with Tamil secessionists and has positioned itself against our men in uniform - the Army and the Police.

A scrutiny of the events clearly indicates a pre-conceived and well-executed attack. As the convoy was allowed to continue its journey through Salem and Erode without incident, the police did not expect trouble in Coimbatore . Anticipating lowered defenses of the Coimbatore police, the anti-national forces came well-prepared to attack the convoy in the guise of a protest demonstration. They clearly outnumbered the police and by the time additional forces were summoned, enough damage had been done. There are reports that the mob even attempted to set fire to the fuel tanks of the army trucks.

Initial investigations and interrogation of the apprehended hooligans have confirmed a huge conspiracy behind this daring act. The Sulur Police have registered cases against 250 persons and 19 persons, including Ramakrishnan, general secretary of PDK, Ponchandran of PUCL, and Sivapriyan of Tamil Nationalist Movement. Many hooligans have allegedly escaped to Chennai and Madurai and crossed over to Kerala.

The police were able to identify the culprits and gather evidence against them from complete video recordings collected from media personnel. The police strongly suspect that many culprits could have crossed over to Kerala as pro-LTTE elements have a safe refuge there in the coastal areas. PDK leader Ramakrishnan reputedly has close connections with LTTE boss Prabhakaran, and according to police records, even visited North Lanka to meet him in the 1980s; he reportedly conducted photo-exhibitions on the war-front and sufferings of Lankan Tamils.

Besides the pro-LTTE and Tamil-chauvinist elements, the involvement of PUCL members gives a different dimension to the issue. The Chennai edition of The Times of India (4 May 2009) reported that PUCL members were involved in the attack. In the past two decades, PUCL is known to have become a front for Naxalites, Maoists and Jihadis, and its sustained campaign against the army in Kashmir and in support of secessionists and militants in the name of human rights, is characteristic of its anti-establishment functioning. It has acted against the governments in Gujarat and Orissa (Kandhamal) in the aftermath of communal riots.

It must be noted that Binayak Sen, PUCL vice president, has been incarcerated in Chattisgarh for allegedly helping Maoists. It has been reported that Kavita Srivastava, secretary PUCL and Rajasthan unit’s general secretary, attended the ‘National Political Conference’ in February 2009 in Calicut, organized by the ‘Popular Front of India,’ an amalgamation of Islamic fundamentalist outfits.

Most PUCL office-bearers are involved in activities helping militant and separatist forces in the name of ‘human rights;’ a majority are ‘advocates.’ K.G. Kannabiran, President PUCL, and celebrities like Suzanne Arundhati Roy, have advocated ‘clemency’ for terrorists like Afzal Guru. The organization gave a tough time to the government and men in uniform in support of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins and sandalwood brigand Veerappan’s aides.

Maoists and Naxalites have a typical style of executing operations. They normally storm police stations, prisons, attack CRPF vehicles and police camps; of late they have started to hijack trains. The recent incident of hijacking a suburban train in Chennai, resulting in the death of four people and injuries to over a dozen, must be seen in this context. Within days, the attack on the army convoy followed.

This is a clear indication of increasing infiltration by Maoists into Tamil Nadu and their sprouting new fronts in pro-LTTE parties and Tamil-chauvinist outfits. Initial investigations in Coimbatore reveal a clandestine connection between the arrested persons and the LTTE. Some have been involved in smuggling arms, ammunition and spare parts for land mines to the LTTE during the 1980s.

The Maoist-Naxal menace is not new to Tamil Nadu, and in fact it has a history spanning more than three decades. The districts of Salem , Dharmapuri, Theni, Dindigul and Madurai were notorious for Maoist activities and the Maoist-LTTE nexus is known. The LTTE has been training Maoist and Tamil separatist elements and their nexus with sandalwood brigand Veerappan is a violent chapter in Tamil Nadu’s history of ‘Law and Order’.

The ‘Communist Party of India (Maoist)’ was actually formed in September 2004 with the merger of two banned Naxalite parties, namely the ‘Communist Party of India (Marxist- Leninist)’ and ‘Maoist Communist Centre of India’. As this new formation was given to violent anti-national and anti-social activities, the Tamil Nadu government banned it in July 2005. With the advent of the DMK government in 2006, there has been an alarming increase in LTTE and Maoist activities, and the Chief Minister had to appoint the immensely popular ADGP K. Vijayakumar, former chief of the STF who finally nabbed and killed Veerappan, once again as the Chief of STF, this time to neutralise the Maoists. ADGP Vijayakumar, considered Jayalalithaa’s blue-eyed boy, was relegated to an insignificant department earlier.

As expected, Vijayakumar’s STF and the ‘Q’ branch swung into action and results started to show almost immediately. A dozen Maoists, clandestinely engaged in recruitment of cadres, were captured along with some of their more notorious leaders who had managed to escape police dragnet for years. Among the captured, one was an engineering student (Muthuselvam) and the other a law student (Velmurugan).

When questioned by the police, all those apprehended confessed that they had been recruited by the PWG (People’s War Group) to create a ‘liberated zone’ in the Western Ghats and that they had links with Maoists in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Nepal . Maps of Chennai and Madurai , along with blueprints of vital civilian installations, were seized from them. As the Tamil Nadu police tightened its grip, LTTE sought safe refuge in north Andhra Pradesh. Both LTTE and Maoists have been covertly using many industrial units without the knowledge of the proprietors to make key components for rockets, grenades and mortars and many such consignments have been seized by police in both states. Maoist and LTTE activities, which rose in 2006 and 2007, started to slump in 2008.

But with the imminent decimation of the LTTE in Sri Lanka , the politics of Tamil Eelam, combining dangerously with Lok Sabha elections in India , gathered momentum and the DMK government, caught in a dilemma, could not employ demonstrable force against pro-LTTE groups and their violent acts. Church backing for pro-LTTE activities was also a reason for the DMK’s weak response.

This emboldened the pro-LTTE elements to flaunt their affiliations and indulge in blatantly treacherous activities, starting from the lawyers’ unrest, which prevailed for over five months from November 2008 to March 2009. Indeed, the disorder caused by a section of the legal fraternity started with the celebration of LTTE chief Prabhakaran’s birthday in November 2008 inside the Court premises, and culminated with the physical assault on Janata Party president Dr. Subramanian Swamy on 27 February and violent clash between lawyers and police on 29 February 2009. The lawyers’ unrest exposed the deep infiltration of Maoist and pro-LTTE elements into the legal fraternity of the state and the clandestine support they get from the Church.

As the pro-LTTE parties failed to induce the student community to rise in support of the LTTE, and as they could not create a massive uprising in support of the LTTE even after stage-managing the self-immolation of a dozen individuals and the lawyers’ unrest, they are frustrated and desperate. The hijacking of the suburban train in Chennai and the attack on the army convoy in Coimbatore is a sign of that desperation. The extraordinary restraint shown by the Army in the face of this outrageous provocation has averted what may have turned into yet another opportunity for the human rights industry, which by definition is fast acquiring the nomenclature of a front for terrorists to castigate our armed forces.

The Army agreed to treat the attack on its convoy as an ‘aberration,’ but warned that troops would retaliate in self-defence as per law if such incidents recurred. Maj-Gen. E.J. Kochekkan, General Officer in Commanding, Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala area, said the troops had “practiced restraint” when the pro-LTTE elements attacked the convoy on May 2. He warned, “The incident is an aberration and not a threat per se. It should not be repeated. If such incidents became a pattern, active measures will have to be adopted and when it gets adopted, then the results could be much worse and catastrophic. It must be avoided at all costs. If it continues, troops will take action in self-defence as the law permits.”

Barring State Congress leaders, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, and Hindu Munnani president Ramagopalan, no political leader, even from the BJP, condemned the attack on the army convoy. MDMK President Vaiko, whose cadres were behind these dastardly acts, was conspicuously silent, as was his leader Jayalalithaa, who waxed eloquent about her patriotism in response to Kapil Sibal’s barb against her seditious demand for Tamil Eelam. Jayalalithaa spoke of an unrealistic Indian military operation against Sri Lanka . Adding insult to injury, their alliance partner and CPI leader Thomas Pandian condemned the arrest of MDMK/ PDK/ PUCL goons!

While Dr. Swamy sought the immediate attention of the Election Commission, Coimbatore-based Congress leader S.R. Balasubramaniam lodged a complaint with the Inspector General of Police West Zone, demanding that the arrested culprits belonging to MDMK/PDK/PUCL be charged for attempted murder. He rightly felt that the incident exposed a deep-rooted conspiracy of several organisations known for their secessionist ideology and reflected a clear intention to cause hatred against the Indian State and the Tamil Nadu government.

It may be noted that the PDK has been clandestinely distributing CD materials in support of LTTE throughout the state; the Congress has objected to the Election Commission. PDK president Kolathur Mani was recently imprisoned under NSA for seditious speech. It is high time the government banned this anti-national organization.

Though TNCC President Thangkabalu and Union Minister G K Vasan condemned the incident, the Congress high command preferred silence so as not to embarrass ally DMK. Hence the Prime Minister also kept quiet and the Defence Minister remained mute. The mainstream electronic media, which repeatedly aired and debated the inconsequential attack on a third-rate pub for more than 72 hours, preferred silence on the attack on the army convoy. This speaks volumes about the Medias’ understanding of national security.

That this violent attack on an Army convoy is not receiving the attention it deserves is cause for great misgiving. Yet what else can one expect of a government and a media which is essentially run on an NGO agenda. This agenda does not respect national soldiers and shamelessly accepts with equanimity the medals which our soldiers returned a few months ago in anger and frustration.

The author is a senior journalist; he lives in Chennai