Its about money

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY


The revision of pay for the Government servants was supposed to bring cheers on their faces. But unwittingly the report of the Sixth Central Pay Commission has created history of a different kind. It seems to have antagonised the Indian Defence Forces so much that the Army has come to a standoff with the Government over the issue of pay. This is a dangerous precedence set by these forces and has exposed the defence forces as undisciplined and untrustworthy. What they have done is nothing but disobedience of orders of the superior authority, in this case the Central Government.

In the Army Act, disobedience is a serious offence which calls for strict punitive measures. One can easily imagine the damage such attitude can cause, especially when it comes from the top brass of our defence forces. I am forced to draw comparisons with the Pakistan Army and our Army fares better only to the extent that it hasn’t overthrown the Government, yet.

Indian Defence forces are smartly using the ubiquitous media to articulate their perceived dissatisfaction with the pay package offered and the media is playing to their tune. In fact the media cannot be blamed because it will be politically incorrect to take a stand against the Defence forces given the emotional quotient associated with the issue. But why do the media not challenge the retired service officers who are acting as the mouthpiece of the forces, with the stark reality of rampant corruption in the Army? Why, the Tehelka expose′ is not raked up. Why various other high profile cases of corruption and fake killings are not talked about? It is surprising that with such a tainted past the forces are showing the audacity to openly defy the Government.

The mouthpieces have been harping on the issue of fighting militancy in Kashmir and the North-East. True, perhaps they cannot talk of a war since there has not been any after 1971. And the possibility of one taking place also is negligible. And here is the Army demanding fat pay packages where as generations of their officers and soldiers will retire without seeing a war. On the other hand there are other Armed Forces like the BSF which has been fighting insurgency in Kashmir and North-East since the days it started. The sacrifices made by the BSF are no less than the Army. Its achievements are no lesser either. Stagnation in BSF is worse than in the Army, but the BSF has never complained about performing duties it is not originally raised for like the Army always bemoans about performing other roles at every available opportunity. Not only that, the BSF is always willing to take additional responsibilities like security during elections etc. The fact that BSF will actively participate in a hot war is never highlighted by any Army officer in public. This era is of multitasking. All organisations in the interest of the Nation must perform duties in times of emergencies which they might not be mandated for when they were raised.

At the Border too the BSF is on duty round the clock. When the Army sits cosy at a peace station a BSF jawan keeps vigil at the Border for more than 18 hours in a day 375 days in a year. Barring Siachin, BSF is deployed at equally inhospitable terrains. The misconception that the Army guards our Borders must be cleared. The media must make efforts to clear their obfuscated vision and enlighten the people. Yet there is a glaring and huge disparity in the pay of a BSF jawan and an Army Jawan even when they are deployed shoulder to shoulder. And then there are no film stars visiting BSF posts either.
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No media coverage at all. Besides, the problem of family separation in BSF is perhaps biggest amongst all uniformed services. The wards of BSF personnel seldom do well in studies and in life. Compare this to the Miss India etc who are so often Army officers’ daughters. The Army officers own a house in almost all expensive localities in Delhi and other metros. Number of BSF or other paramilitary service officers with this kind of privilege is negligible. The Army runs good schools at all place where they get deployed, a facility, BSF can only dream of. They are showered with so many concessions, discounts, post retirement benefits etc but similar privileges are non existent in the life of BSF person. Compare the residential societies raised by the Army with those raised by the paramilitary services and one can easily judge that they have been only making merry. Even the gallantry medals earned by the paramilitary forces are accorded a lower status than those earned by the Army. This rampant discrimination has been going on for years but the BSF has never had any instance of collective disobedience or desertions like the one seen in the Army in the past. Yet they are pleading for more like spoilt children.

In Kashmir and North-East the role of the Army has always been under a shadow of human rights abuse. The have been killing innocent people and branding them as terrorists by planting weapons on them. How can the media forget such incidents so easily? Such incidents are much more in number and only a few high profile ones were reported in the National media. BSF on the contrary has a much better reputation in anti-insurgency operations.

There is a lot of hue and cry about the status of a Lt Col too. People must understand what Lt Cols in the Army do. They either officiate as Commanding Officers in the absence of the Colonel or perform duties of staff officers in the headquarters and surprisingly also command companies, a sub-unit of a battalion, a task which has to be performed by a Major/Captain. In BSF the 2IC (Lt Col) does similar duties but the rank has not been degraded like in the Army. The 2 IC does not perform the duties of a company commander. Wonder how they can equate a company commander with a director or a 2IC of BSF. If a Lt Col is upgraded to pay band 4, will the BSF 2IC also be extended the same courtesy he will have to resort to indiscipline to get that status.

Indian defence forces are a reflection of our secular status. There are numerous personnel from minority communities serving in these forces. They have been laying their lives for this country and when religious fanatics indulged in mob fury killing thousands of minority community people including women and children, no Chief serving or retired raised his voice to pressurise the Government to act tough lest the harmonious relations amongst all religions in the forces would be affected adversely. Those were the times when they should have been a little assertive. But when they raised their voice, they did it for a few pennies more. So the motivation factor is not patriotism but money and only money. The big question then is that whether the Nation is safe in the hands of a greedy Army ready to hold to ransom its own Government or there should be disciplinary proceedings initiated against the Generals to restore sanity and supremacy of the Government?