*SUMMAR Y OF DEFENCE AND GoI - LAST FOUR YEARS* By Brig Aarun Bajpai

Indian Military Veterans

Now that we are comparing 2014 with 2018 and talking about *four years ago....* , let me illustrate a few decisions by the present Govt concerning its Armed Forces and its Pensioners.

You can add some more which I might have missed out. These are not in any order of importance, but came to my mind randomly.

1. *Independence Day Function.*    

All these years, since 1947, the Independence Day is organised by the Armed Forces at Red Fort, Delhi. Now after NDA-II came to power the role of the Armed Forces has been fully erased. Now the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Delhi Area is made to stand far away from the Hon’ble PM. Civilians have taken that place earlier occupied by GOC, Delhi Area.

2. *Republic Day Celebrations.* 

On 30 Jan every year, the Armed Forces bands play martial music in front of Rashtrapati Bhavan (The President being the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces).. Now it has been replaced by folk music.

3. *Truncated (One Rank One Pension) OROP.*    The NDA-II Government gives truncated OROP by diluting its definition accepted by BJP on the floor of the Parliament. The Hon’ble PM goes to Punjab for State election meeting and tells “We have diverted funds meant for farmers to OROP”. However, the truth is that the same has already been granted to all Civil Services since long.

4. *MoD has Lost its Importance.*     

Since the last four years, the Min of Def has been downgraded systematically. Firstly the hon’ble Finance Minister is made to officiate as Defence Minister. Then you get Mr Manohar Parikar, a flyweight leader of BJP from Goa, to head such an important ministry. By using the rule of '75 years', the Hon’ble PM discarded Maj Gen BC Khanduri (Rtd) who should have been appointed Raksha Mantri. Now you have a Raksha Mantri who has to approach Hon’ble Finance Minister for sanction of any project worth a relatively paltry sum of Rs 200 crores.

5. *War Wastage Reserves (WWR).*    

Our reserve stocks have fallen below 10 day of intense fighting if war were to take place tomorrow. But none in the PMO or Min of Def have bothered as to how to equip Armed Forces to fight a battle if it is forced on us. We are  back to 1962 as far as Defence preparedness goes.

6. *Defence Budget.* 

It is not covered in the Union Budget of 2018-19. This is the importance the Hon’ble PM and Finance Minister have for Defence Forces. The defence budget has been lowest at 1.58% of GDP since 1947. We are heading towards repeat of 1962 when China and Pakistan are consistently upgrading their military muscle.

7. *Absence of PM and RM at  'AT HOME' in Army House.*     

Traditionally the Hon’ble PM and RM attend AT HOME hosted by Army Chief on Army Day on 15 Jan of every year. This time, the Hon’ble RM and Hon’ble PM considered it a waste of time, and did not attend the AT HOME in the Army House on 15 January 2018. 

8. *Opening of Cantonment Roads.*  The severest blow to the izzat of Armed Forces is the mindless order of the Min of Def on Army to open all Cantt roads to civilians. No barricades at all, no checking of civilians at the entry points, polite behaviour of Armed Forces personnel with unruly civilians. Though all these pose a grave threat to military installations, they do not seem to worry the Ministry of Defence. No lessons have been learnt from Pathankot, Samba, Sunjwan, Nagrota and many other places. 

9. *Dilution of Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) Act 2007.*  Ordinarily, all Tribunals are under the control of Min of Law and Justice. But AFT is under Min of Def, who is the biggest litigant. Now the administrative member can be any civilian due to recent amendment to the AFT Act 2007. Systematic downgradation of AFTs by not appointing the members of AFT has been carried out, thereby making then non-functional. Furthermore, the required budget has also not been allocated.

10. *Litigation Against its Own Soldiers.*  

India is the only country which fights its own soldiers. Min of Def challenges all most all favourable orders of AFTs given to faujis by appealing them in Hon’ble Supreme Court. Hon’ble Supreme Court had to levy a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the Min of Def for appealing shamelessly when the legal case was well settled by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in earlier instances. Min of Def employs 10 advocates to argue case in Hon’ble Supreme Court which has already gone in favour of faujis by the Apex Court. Numerous examples exist.

11. *7th Central Pay Commission (CPC).*  The benefit of entitled ration to Officers in peace stations has been withdrawn based on silly recommendation of 7th CPC who did not go into details as to why Smt Indira Gandhi sanctioned it in 1983.

12. *Anomalies in CPCs since 3rd CPC.*   

A number of anomalies have crept in since 1976 in pay & allowances, pensions, status of Armed Forces vis-a-vis Civilian Central Govt employees. In spite of repeated requests by the three Service HQs, no committee has been constituted by the Min of Def. If the same thing happens in Ministry of Railways, the negotiations with Railway Unions start at the earliest and all their demands are met in no time. Just because the basic fundamental right to protest of the Armed Forces has been curbed, the Armed Forces are being neglected.

13. *Replacement of Special Army Instructions (SAI) with Gazette Notification.*    When the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) refuses to implement orders of the 7th CPC, the NDA–II Govt issues a Gazette Notification replacing traditional SAI, listing out the pay and allowances of serving soldiers.

14. *Accept Govt Orders on 7th CPC First, and Anomalies will be Looked into Later.*  When Service Chiefs remonstrated that they are not in a position to implement government orders on the 7th CPC, Mr Manohar Parrikar had the audacity to instruct them in writing to implement the orders of the Govt and said that the anomalies will be looked into later. Like all previous anomalies, these in the 7th CPC are also seeing the same fate.

15. *Non-functional Financial Upgrade (NFU).*     

In spite of the Delhi High Court and AFT Delhi giving judgment for grant of NFU to the Defence Services, the same has been challenged in the Hon’ble Supreme Court. Again, a case of the government fighting against its own Armed Forces.

16. *Report of Anomalies of OROP of Justice L Narasimah Reddy NOT Yet Implemented.*    Though Justice L Narasimha Reddy had submitted his report on anomalies of OROP to the Raksha Mantri in October 2016. Yet, the same has not been implemented on the ground that the Govt of India does not have funds. Have we really become a bankrupt state ?

17. *Surgical Strikes.*   

It seems apparent now that the surgical strikes had been ordered only to win UP State elections. Immediately after the surgical stike, BJP went to town in UP showing how strongly they defend our country, and got a landslide majority in the UP State elections. 

18. *Construction of Bridges in Mumbai Railway Stations.*   

Army was ordered to construct bridges in railway stations in Mumbai when the old bridges collapsed, killing many people. The bridges had to be transported from Doklam with no free hand given to Army. The bridges were forced to be constructed in the night time. When a Railway Engineering Division is available, why does the Army have to be deployed? Has the Civil Administration collapsed completely?? If yes, then it is high time to declare President's Rule.

19. *International Yoga Day.*   

The private contractor did not carry out the job of placing yoga mats. Immediately Army was asked to do the job. It is a non-military job thrust on Army with full knowledge that COAS will not object to use of Army on non-military tasks. Again... failure of Civil Administration???

20. *Clearance of Waste in Mountaineering Routes in Himalayan Mountains.*     

Army has been ordered to collect garbage strewn by mountaineers over a period of time. Porters could have been employed by the State governments to do the same job. Has the Indian Army become a safaiwala organisation??

21. *Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) 64 KB Smartcard.*    

The Ministry of Defence, without consulting MD, ECHS has negotiated for issue of 64 KB card to all 52 lakh members of ECHS with a private software company. Even though 16 kb and 32 kb cards are functioning well the online submission of data to get 64 kb card has forced large number of members of ECHS to shell out large amounts of money to the computer centers. Information sought in online data submission is in no way connected with the medical history of the ECHS member, eg. bank account details and specimen signatures, which are personal data. The Ministry of Defence is hell bent on passing sensitive personal data of members to a private company when data is already available with the server of ECHS should have been used to replace 16 kb and 32 kb cards. One page data from all those who were not issued smart cards could have been asked instead of forcing them to submit their personal data online. 

22. *Defence Planning Committee.*   

Now all Service Chiefs are subservient to a low grade intelligence guy from IPS who is called the National Security Advisor (NSA). He is in effect the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). The Service Chiefs now have to report to him, and not to the Hon’ble PM, once a month which used to be the norm when Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee was the PM, from 1999 to 2004. 

23. *Lowering of Status of Armed Forces vis-a-vis Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs).*   

The CAPFs are 1.10 million strong and get whatever they want unlike Armed Forces who have to beg even for a pencil or a nail.

24. *Intergrated Financial Advisor (IFA) System.*   The Integrated Financial Advisors from Defence Accounts Department (DAD) are supposed to be advisor to military commanders but they have become bosses. They contemptuously turn down proposals of GOC of Sub-areas for utilising funds for special repairs, purchase of animal feed for military farms, construction of sanctioned infrastructure, etc. 

25. *Non-allotment of Funds to ECHS to Clear Outstanding Bills of Empanelled Hospitals.*    The Ministry of Defence deliberately delays releasing funds to ECHS. Crores of rupees are outstanding to be paid to the empanelled hosptials for treating members of ECHS who were recommended by MHs to go for treatment. Hundreds of hospitals all over the country have not accepted ECHS patients as their outstanding bills have not been cleared. Coimbatore has a large number of corporate hospitals. But none is willing to be empanelled, as ECHS is known for not clearing their bills over two to three years. Those who were empanelled have asked for de-panelment.

26. *Hard Area Allowance of Bureaucrats in Shillong and Leh.*    Living in secure environments in Shillong and Leh, with plethora of policemen guarding the IAS and other bureaucrats, they get Rs 54,000/- pm as hard area allowance whereas a commissioned officer of the rank of Colonel gets only Rs 29,500/- in Siachen.

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By B B Ghai

TSEWA 1212