We The People, Covering OROP

Dear Brig Kamboj,

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I must compliment you, for providing yeoman’s service to the cause of the IESM. May you have a long long and long life. That is my sincere wish.

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I had the opportunity to see the video footage of “We The People”, covering OROP only today, as the link forwarded along with the comments didn’t seem to be working. It finally did work but then it was continuous only intermittently. All the same it gave a reasonably good coverage of all that was planned to be projected. There was sufficient material provided by our representatives to derive some sympathy as well as hardships being faced by the defence personnel due to apathy at various levels of the civilian and judicial hierarchy. The overall content of the programme could certainly have been better and inclined more towards the OROP which every now and then appeared to be sidelined by the arguments being put forward both by the pros and cons.

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It seemed that with the exception of a few pros, to our cause, Barkha Datt was more inclined and hankering towards the cons especially Mrs Indu Liberhan (attitude towards OROP +++-ve), Pinky Anand ie the pink Lady, the Supreme Court Advocate, who didn’t seem to have even the slightest idea of the main issue and any sympathy towards our cause. She appeared only single tracked, except that in the end she said that all the legal cases filed by the defence persons should be looked into earlier (attitude towards OROP ++-ve), Mr Ajay Shah, who seemed totally single tracked and biased against the defence forces and was unable to open his third eye which could see something more judicious and logical for grant of OROP (attitude towards OROP +++-ve) and the last but not the least that unsoldierly Capt Praveen Dawar who seemed to be giving illogical and totally anti defence arguments throughout should have been cut down to size much earlier during his utterances by someone if Barkha Datt did not do it. I made an effort to give a strong reply to his illogical letter written to a large number of veterans a few days back.

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Unfortunately, very few rebuttals came out against all the rubbish uttered by these. I think we should have been better prepared and quick at countering their negative and illogical stand and utterances against the OROP. So, it seemed at the end that they were able to score a symbolic victory against the defence forces’ demand for OROP. I hold Barkha Datt, responsible for this, as she gave them maximum time to complete their arguments or I’ll say utterances and try to convince the public watching the show rather than those in the studio, inspite of all her efforts to highlight or get justification for the OROP.

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Our stalwarts to have got some positive support towards the services cause were Capt Sidhu (he could be a part of future discussions (++++ +ve), Rajeev Chandrashekhar MP (+++ +ve), both Mr Manvendra Singh & Cdre Uday Bhaskar ( ++ +ve). Lt Gens Kadiyan and Oberoi were conspicuous by the quite dignity they provided to the show, and whatever they spoke was convincing.

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My general impression is that inspite of scoring just about passable marks in the very first attempt, we should have been much more better prepared at least statistically. One major argument favouring the OROP which seemed to have been totally ignored was the fact of early retirement of defence personnel, starting from the ages ranging from 38 to 50 years. We could have highlighted as to what was the financial loss suffered by them in pay alone, vis a vis the rest of the government staff till their retirement age of 60-62 years. Some economic/financial experts need to be consulted and co-opted in the matter. Similarly, Maj Gen Satbir Singh, who I feel is an expert in such matters was really missed a lot as he could have projected some strong arguments in favour and some strong rebuttals for arguments against.

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I however feel that the IESM made a very respectable start with the media to attract a section of Indian population viewing NDTV. We must now ensure that this momentum is not surrendered now under any circumstances. We must now carry on regardless as the saying goes by thoroughly covering whatever shortcomings were observed in our first attempt. I would like to suggest the following:-

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( a ) We should draft a detailed letter covering all our arguments in support of the OROP and address them to all the sitting MPs both Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha to garner their support. The letters could also be sent to all party heads to enlighten them suitably about our cause. I am sure a large number of them would come forward to support our cause and would make a difference in the respective houses of parliament.

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( b ) It is observed that a large number of our readers have extended excellent suggestions in their letters to Brig Chander Kamboj. Let us not just ignore them, but make a bank of all these suggestions and try and get the best out of them at opportune moment. I would personally like to compliment Maj Gen Krishan Khorana (13 Sep 2010) for his excellent comments and suggestions. We must consider them.

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( c ) Now that NDTV has given a start, we might approach some more popular channels through some influential lights, to have similar programmes for their viewers. We could certainly take advantage of valuable views received from our readers and make preparations covering all the convincing arguments to make our case convincing and stronger. This would also help us to get much better public support

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( d ) We should consult and have meetings with experts who could strengthen the cause of OROP to make our case more convincing, and to undo the disadvantages which we often suffer at the hands of the Government, bureaucrats and others .

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( e ) We must earmark some more people of the category and calibre of Capt Sidhu to forcefully convince the public of the apathy shown by the people who matter ie government, bureaucracy and judiciary as applicable.

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With best regards to all who have been instrumental in organising the show including those behind the stage.

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Col LK Anand Retd