By Brig Chander Kamboj
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It is a matter of great shame for the Indian Nation that The President – The Supreme Commander of Armed Forces of India and the Prime Minister of India, have no time to pay homage to those who laid their lives in the past for the honour, safety and security of India and they have no time to remember and honour the greatest victory of Indian Armed Forces of 16 Dec 1971 (and the Kargil Diwas).
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Why blame only the President and Prime Minister of India?
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Why don’t our three Chiefs ensure that The President and the Prime Minister are made to visit the India Gate on 16 Dec, and respectfully advised to lay the wreaths there on Vijay Diwas and Kargil Diwas???
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Why are they shy of giving this proposal to the Supreme Commander and through her to the Government of India and the PM???
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The three Chiefs should know that as per the Constitution of India Armed Forces do not fall in the list of Government servants.
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They are directly under the President of India and operate through the Government for better management and simplicity of coordination of all Government resources for the safety and security of India.
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Further, the so called control of Armed Forces on behalf of the President is to be done by the political leaders and not by the bureaucrats (Babus).
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Unfortunately, our senior Armed Forces officers keep accepting all nonsense the Babus heap upon them.
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What a shame that every response, veterans receive from the RM for their representations, are drafted by the Babus and RM quotes the Committee of Secretaries for all problems??? The Babus are deliberately misleading the Government and there is no one who can detect what damage these Babus are doing to our nation.
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For the PM and RM the Committee of Secretaries is more important than the Standing Committee for Defence, which consists of representatives of all political parties. Any numbers of Defence Committees have recommended OROP but the few Babus have successfully bluffed the Government and made the Government take decision to the contrary. There is also a clear cut case of Rank Pay, where the Babus have deliberately cheated the Armed Forces officers. These are the ways of our Government of India!!!
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Will our three Defence Chiefs forever continue to bear this insult to the Armed Forces and the Military Veterans of India???
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Don’t the three Chiefs have the responsibility that the Armed Forces of India get their due respect and their serving subordinates and the Military Veterans of India get justice from Government of India in terms of their financial dues and order of Protocol???
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The Three Chiefs and other senior military officers should realise that tomorrow they will also be in the list of “retired” and then - it will be too late for them to do anything.
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Is it the carrot of becoming a Governor, Ambassador, High Commissioner, MP or being given other high chairs of Government of India, which is keeping them away from looking after their Military Veterans, who helped them to reach those high ranks in the Armed Forces???
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How do they expect us and serving soldiers to respect them, if they do not respect our sentiments and know our expectations???
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The Government and the Three Chiefs should appreciate that a fairly large number of serving personnel are the sons, grandsons, daughters and grand daughters of the retired military veterans. What the veterans are undergoing is now well known to these serving soldiers and through them the entire serving soldiers know it now.
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How can these serving soldiers remain faithful to the Government of India if their grandfathers and fathers are being insulted and humiliated daily???
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During various rallies and TV programmes, the media persons ask the IESM members and other veterans –
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“If the demands of the Indian Military veterans are just then why don’t the three Chiefs openly support your demands?” – and on hearing this simple question - the veterans become speechless.
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If the veterans tell the truth the serving senior officers of the three Services will be humiliated, therefore, they keep mum!!!
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Can the Media make sure that the sentiments and feelings expressed here reach the three serving Chiefs, the Senior Armed Forces Officers occupying chairs of Governors, Ambassadors, High Commissioners, members of parliament, members of state legislative assemblies and other senior posts of Government of India.
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All these retired senior Armed Forces officers need to realise that they are occupying those high chairs because their subordinates always co-operated with them and helped them to rise to those heights!!! All these gentlemen are now sitting as silent spectators – with earplugs and blind folds – as if they reached those high posts by their own efforts only.
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The Chiefs should be informed that the Indian Military Veterans are now at the verge of losing their patience.
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In the recent past, thousands of cases have been decided by AFT and other courts in favour of the Veterans but no action is being taken by Government of India to implement these court orders.
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Don’t the three Chiefs know about it?
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Is the information system of our Service HQs’ so useless that they do not get any information about the welfare and injustice to Indian military veterans???
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If you can - PLEASE do try and convey the grievances of the veterans to the Three Chiefs and retired Senior Armed Forces officers, occupying high chairs of Government of India.
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The Indian Military Veterans are a highly disciplined force, but even the most disciplined soldier has a limit to his patience.
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The Government of India and The Three Service HQs should act before it is too late.
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The IESM is trying its best to ensure that all rallies organised by it remain peaceful but, the opposition to its peaceful ways is gradually rising among the veterans. IESM Governing Body and its conveners at state, district and lower levels are hopeful that at least the IESM rallies will continue to follow the ethos of Indian Military – but for how long???
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The Veterans are fed up of the shameless silence of the Government of India on the thousands of Court cases, which have been decided in favour of the Veterans – there are no indications of the implementation of these court orders.
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This fervant appeal is in the service of Indian Military Veterans
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Chander Kamboj
An Aggrieved & Distressed Defence Veteran
Published in Free Press Indore on Sunday 26 December 2010
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