The reading of the comments made by Min of Def in response to queries raised by 7th CPC (obtained by Air Mshl Savur and put in his blog Aerial View) reveal how subservient Armed Forces have become. I get the impression lowly CAPF Officers are better than our senior Armed Forces Officers.
Right from 1947 Armed Forces Officers were considered a notch above God’s Own ICS Officers. Now our worthy senior Armed Forces Officers are happy to be equated with second rate IPS Officers because they wear uniform and have badges of rank. That means we have accepted we are inferior to IAS and IFS.
Look at the cadre strength of IAS and the number of Secretary level officers (out of 6,000 IAS Cadre strength they have 300 Secretaries to the Govt of India vis – a- vis out of 48,500 Armed Forces Officers we have not got more than 20 Army Cdrs and equivalent).
One Secretary in Min of Def (ESW) told me when he visited my office when I was Director Sainik Welfare A.P
“Brigadier Sahib, Your Senior Armed Forces officers are like passengers in the General compartment of train. One or two desperately try and get into the General compartment and once they are in they would not allow anyone else to enter. We, IAS Officers have no shame to serve under one of our own batch mates or even juniors. Look at me. I am Secretary in Min of Def (ESW) and Def Secy is junior to me though he is my batch mate. How does it matter to me? Both of us get the same salary and we enjoy the same perks. Def Secy respects me because I am his senior.
Look at Finance Secretary. He has a half dozen to dozen secretaries who work under him. One is Revenue Secretary, another is Expenditure Secy, third one is Secretary Banking services, fourth one is Secretary Non Banking services. No body feels jealous of Finance Secy.
Look at Foreign Secy. He has dozen Secretaries under him. One is Secy East, another is Secy Middle East, another is Secy North America etc.
Can you ever permit 10 Army Cdrs serve under one Army Cdr? You waste your time in your rank badges, how many orderlies you must have, how many men you must command. You keep throwing the phrase I have never understood – It is rank down-gradation?
You guys want everything for yourself but you would not allow the same privileges to be given to your juniors. You suffer and blame for all your ills on us IAS Officers. If you cannot set up your house in order what can we do? Sorry most of you have not grown up after you left your training academies. You keep throwing your seniority when that means in your own language focol. Not even God Almighty can help you unless you people reform yourselves. Sorry for this but that is my view and my perspective. I am sure you will not agree.
Will you work under another Brig if he is junior to you in NDA by three or four courses? No you will never. But we in IAS have no such hard feelings. As long our pay and privileges are not reduced, we can serve under any one who may be junior to us by three or four years”
Was this IAS Officer wrong in what he thinks of us?
Service Chiefs as per the admission of Min of Def agree to only few Lt Gens to HAG + scale of pay and not all 100% Lt Gens.
Why then blame Min of Def? These guys in Min of Def manage to get such stupid recommendation from our worthy service chiefs (sorry Gen YN Sharma sir this is the calibre of modern service chiefs and you may say my comments are in bad taste) and quote ad nausem to deny any benefit to Armed Forces personnel.
Are 0.02% Lt Gens in Armed Forces are equal to 80% IAS Officers who reach level of HAG+ and we call this parity? Can there be any more nonsense than this?
When 6th CPC offered NFFU to Armed Forces it is reported a CNS told “I will have more Admirals drawing NFFU than the ships I command?”
Whom do you blame for this utter down-gradation of izzaat of Armed Forces? Service Chiefs or Min of Def?
If Army is going to rent out four battalions to clean River Ganga @ Rs 70 crore per annum per bn, why blame Min of Def.
Is it the job of inf bn to clean shit thrown by all and sundry in River Ganga? Do our Service Chiefs know that there used to be Eco Bns of TA who do these kind of things?
Present CM of Telangana was tempted by the servility of Armed Forces to tell striking GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) sanitary staff “If you go on strike and do not life garbage then I will call Army”.
So Army has been reduced to cleaning River Ganga, placing mats for Yoga on Yoga International day in Delhi and lifting Garbage of GHMC.
Sir, do not get me wrong. All Service Chief are not servile as the present lot.
We had Gen OP Malhotra when ordered to employ Army to dispose of dead bodies of Tsunami that hit Andhra Pradesh in 1978, refused to do so and was bold enough to say “ Lifting dead bodies is the job of scavengers and soldiers are not scavengers”.
Gen KV Krishna Rao confronted mighty Indira Gandhi and said “Either you give us free rations or accept my resignation”.
Adm Sureesh Mehta issued instructions in Navy that they will not accept 6th CPC pay scales unless Lt Cols are brought up from PB- 3 to PB-4.
These Service Chiefs were not dismissed. Because they had moral courage to confront. They had 00s.
Why cannot Service HQ make a simple chart to show to CPCs as to how many reach the rank of Joint Secy at what service and how many in the Armed Forces reach that rank. Then take it to Addl Secy level and then Secy level as percentage in their respective cadre? Then only one will understand meaning of stagnation. Are they not capable of showing how much an IAS from the day he enters service collect lawful wages till he retires and how much an Armed Forces collects in his service career. Can they not on this on average basis?
Why cannot TRIPAS demand pay of Armed Forces due to acute stagnation be made year wise with rank pay separately so that even if super-seeded officers keep getting higher pay?
Why cannot TRIPAS list out all types of allowances to civilian employees on percentage of basic pay and compare them to Armed Forces personnel who get a fixed sum to show how we are cheated at every stage for working in most inhospitable conditions?
If an insignificant issue having very little financial effect such as trade rationalisation for Armed Forces Personnel requires elaborate procedures like (a) Appointing Committee of Secretaries in which there is no representation of Defence Services (b) Group of Ministers and (c) Discussion in the Cabinet are put into motion. This is to ensure nothing is given easily to Armed Forces. To keep them under modern slavery and force them to beg for crumbs to be thrown at them. But when an operation takes place immediately praising the Armed Forces to the Sky is the norm in Govt of India since 1947 thanks to Nehruvian policy of having strangle hold on the Armed Forces.
But when it comes to recommending upgrading 24 posts of Addl Secys to Secretaries in IRS and similar upgradation in other Group A services what is required? A simple note in a file is moved and approval of the minister is obtained and then implemented immediately or obtain cabinet nod after cups of tea and savoured free by these worthies our democratic system has put in place.
Now where is committee of secretaries, Group of Ministers for these Group A services gone when some bounty is to be given to civilians?
Security experts both from Defence fraternity and Civilian community are unanimous in their conclusion that Pathankot Air Base operation is a fiasco.
It begs the following questions.
Who is responsible for defence of Pathankot Air base?
Is it not AOC, Air force Station Pathankot?
He can as per SOP ask for additional help from his boss i.e. AOC-in-C, Western Air Comd who in turn ask for help form Chief of Air Staff. We in Army have SOP for sector def in peace station and practise it regularly so that any such incident happening in one unit, all neighbouring units come to rescue of that unit under difficulty. Is there no area defence plans for def units deployed in Pathankot or anywhere else? Can not AOC Pathankot ask for help from Inf Div and Armd Bde co-located in Pathankot?
Who is NSA to take charge of this operation? Is it in his charter of duties? Is he CDS? Have we outsourced defence of our own installations to a NSA who is an IPS guy?
Balan Sir, I know you do not like my mail being a typical infantarian. Coolly think of this. Army has been reduced to laying mats for Yoga because the civil company contracted failed to turn up and cleaning River Ganga. If weapon yielding jawans are made to lift garbage on taslas on their heads why blame anyone? Now COAS must be very busy discussing as to who should made responsible to contract a million taslas. Is it DGOS or E-in-C? Should it be procured under DGS &D Rate contract or should we go to IFA and get his approval?
I wonder why all veterans are crying hoarse that 7th CPC has downgraded fauns.
Our COAS has converted our soldiers into scavengers.
7th CPC gives such scavengers benefit of soldiers and recommend them higher pay & allowances and pensions of soldiers and not of scavengers which we have been reduced to by our worthy COAS, should we not thank Chairman 7th CPC?
I know you do not know whether to laugh or weep at my mail?
Regards,
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Rtd)
9493191380
An Article worth reading, if not read before, which questions the wisdom of some nitwit Editor who wanted late Col Niranjan to be be taken to task for not following the Drill during Operation in Pathankot. Read below :-
Dear Editor of the Telegraph,
Your editorial ‘Martyrs Rite’ on Col Niranjan on 07 Jan 15 ranks as the most depressing piece that I have come across on Pathankot operations. In sweeping keystrokes, you’ve murdered the martyr more treacherously than the jihadi’s explosives did. You’ve stated that Late Col acted on ‘bravado’, and used editorial license to call his act ‘stupidity’, you then questioned why he got a ‘state funeral’. Not satisfied by that, you have continued to poke the dead and demand that he must be ‘taken to task’ even when ‘dead’.
As a citizen who rests assured on the cover that my army gives me I have certain questions and comments for you.
Firstly I wonder how much do you know about the happenings on that fateful day to show the cocksureness hat you’ve shown in your piece?
Technically, let’s assume that it was the jihadi’s dying act to have booby trapped himself- How are you sure it was a simple trap that you assume it is?
Let’s call it a body trapped IED, and you may find that there are myriad ways that it could outwit a disposal specialist. Even assuming that was a grenade, it is essentially a mind game between the specialist and the jihadi with multiple likelihoods of its activation. Add to it the immense pressures of leading a group from front in that given situation.
I reckon that Col Niranjan had an extremely difficult task at hand which he did bravely for us all.
You’ve also linked up ‘discipline’, ‘routine’ (you meant an SOP?), ‘behaviour’, ‘ridicule’ etc. I wonder what on earth has these got to with brave act of a young soldier who got plucked in the prime trying to do his duty! Your articulation appeared too obfuscated for me to discern anything sensible.
By asking the martyr to be ‘taken to task’, even as embers on his pyre are smouldering, you have disrespected his death for our cause! Typing away in some urban air-conditioned office against a deadline I suspect your tribal instincts won over your civility when you questioned Niranjan’s state funeral. Do you know that this is a nation that honourably buries even enemy soldiers?
You say that he should’ve acted safely right? Safety is a much abused line today. Kindly remember India will rue the day a soldier acts too safe. Soldiering is never a zero risk game. You walk that tight rope between SOPs and situations that a creative fate throws at you. Off all the contingencies that you are prepared for there are always surprises which leaves no scope for counsel or moments to deliberate. You act on instinct as a reflex derived from training.
You, like me, I’m certain would have been in our cosy drawing rooms glued to headlines as Niranjan braved the jihadis. What on earth gives us the wisdom and the right to question Niranjan and Army screaming a cover up!
If there is anyone who has to cover up I guess it your paper for having shot off an immature and outrageous editorial!
I think as the man on ground he acted a most honourably for our sake. Let us bow to that. If there has been shortcomings in his drills let us leave it to a system which usually gets to the bottom of things!
Editors have a serious role in society. By asking difficult questions you act as conscious keepers of the society. That in no way gives you the right of editorial brazen ness which was on display today. Your piece was downright inhumane and served no purpose. By all means question the living system, but desist from passing judgement on the dead too quickly. They went to fetch us peace!
You owe Niranjan and the nation an apology!
