The debate on the Civil vs Military aspects of the VI CPC report,
it seems, will continue to simmer, but, to me, the most interesting development
on the debate this time around has been the Cabinet Secretary’s public
admission that the Military will not be paid at the same levels as the Civil
Services (parity was the term used). Some years ago, when it was suggested that
India was probably the only democracy in the world that paid less to its
military than the civil services, there were many denials, even in the
military. The tragedy of the Indian Armed Forces has been that they seem to
pick up these very nay-sayers to project their pay proposals to the government/
CPCs. Little wonder then, that military has a relative reduction in pay/
status with every CPC.
The bureaucracy of course had found a simple, ingenuous way
of showing that the armed forces were paid more. Unilaterally declare
equivalence between the military and the civil services personnel by issuing a
memo elevating the junior civil service guy two steps above his logical
military counterpart and ergo, the claim that level for level, the military is
paid higher seems right. This was the argument followed so far, but when the
debate turned nasty this time, the Cab Sec has let the cat out of the bag.
While completely disagreeing with the logic of the Cabinet Secretary, I must
appreciate this rare honesty (I think for the first time on the subject) on the
part of the bureaucracy. Shorn of the niceties, he has merely reiterated the
factual position that the armed forces in India will continue to be
discriminated against, in matters of pay and allowances. I hope the armed
forces take this candidness forward and highlight it in their advertisements
asking youngsters to don uniform. As important, allow those who are not happy
with their situation, to leave when they choose. Thereafter, it becomes an
informed choice by those joining and they would have little reason to complain.
But the disconcerting development in the lead up to this admission
was that a straightforward case of discriminatory (or non-discriminatory)
pay-determination was being made out as some civil-military confrontation by
some in the media and also bloggers who have little or no idea of compensation
packages available either to the civilians or the military personnel, or of
military service conditions for that matter. They also seem to have forgotten
that the debate was about central
pay scales and not about the
military or its personnel.
If only the media had sought out the logic applied for pay
determination, by the CPC or the Committee of Secretaries, this debate would
have been more meaningful and the Cabinet Secretary’s admission would have been
self-evident. Actually you don’t need a debate; a simple graphical presentation
will make it obvious even to the densest observer that the career/ pension
earnings of the average military officer in India are much less than that of
the average Gp A civil service officer.
We are not the only country in the world with civil and military
services. A comparison with any other democratic country could be revealing. I
think the very fact that it was blown up into this confrontation revealed that
the GOI had no defence for what the CPC and the Committee of Secretaries did.
The injection of civil-military relations into the discussion was a crude
attempt to side-track the core issue. The Service Hqs also do not appear to
have highlighted the contradiction between what the CPC said (we have given
parity), dishonest though it was, and what the Cabinet Secretary admitted
(parity is difficult) later.
An interesting sidelight was also an attempt to pitch the officers
of the Central Police Organisations against the Armed Forces and some of the
poor guys (who are victims of even worse discrimination) bought the bait; hook,
line and sinker. The irony that the CPOs’ delegation which went to apprise the
political class of their problems did not have even a single member from the
CPOs seems to have been lost on the media. How on earth can the lot of the CPOs
improve, if their problems become their very spokesmen?
I also found the application of CTC concept for the military
amusing. Extending the logic, is the individual also expected to do a CTH/F
(Cost to himself/herself/family) analysis when faced with a life-threatening
situation? In any case, it is good to remember that for the Tommy on ground,
CTC is like the defence budget to Sad
Sack, the 60s cartoon
character. The bigger the
budget, the bigger the gun he gets to clean. Those not familiar with the
subject will do well to remember that.
Colin Wilson, in his classic, ‘A
criminal History of Mankind’, comments thus about the Roman rule in
Britain. The incompetent resident procurator imposed impossible demands on the
locals. Queen Boudica, who protested was stripped and flogged and her daughters
raped, by order. She in turn, rallied the locals in protest and ransacked the
Roman garrison. A bout of murderous attacks and counterattacks followed. After
days of fighting, massacre and destruction, including the burning down of
London, Boudica and her daughters committed suicide to avoid capture. The scale
of Roman retribution shocked even Nero, the emperor, who replaced the Governor
and military commander. Pax Romana was reestablished and the unbearable
demands withdrawn.
“It is not clear”, he writes, “what became of Catus
Decianus, the man who caused the whole thing by ordering the floggings and
rapes; no doubt he continued to rise in the Roman Civil Service” ( unaffected
by all that transpired around him)
I cannot find a closer analogy than this, to the imbroglio visited
on the nation and the armed forces in particular, by the VI CPC and the
Committee of Secretaries, in recent times. The pay anomaly may or may not be
resolved, but it has done great harm to inter-departmental cooperation, and
what is certain is that those responsible for the entire sorry episode will
continue to inflict their incompetence on the country and retire (if at all)
with a comfortable pension.
These are the musings of a deprived soldier!
Isn't it a great pity that this is a fact of life and Indian soldiers are the deprived lot and victims of this criminal discrimination
Even during British rule soldiers were paid better salaries than civilians. The real rulers in the independent India, the bureaucracy using politicians, have usurped to themselves all the powers of governance.
ReplyDeleteA pity for this great country that those who are elected representative are busy as self seeking monsters in partnership with the Brown Sahebs.
All credit to the three Services they are still holding the unity, integrity and security of the nation at great sacrifice of personal needs and comfort.
"a simple graphical presentation" ...this made me think....if I had the understanding I would make a line or bar graph plotting years of service,pay scales/bands/fitment,ranks/designations for civ and mil rks.
ReplyDeleteBut like most of us I happily accepted what I got in service.
Please someone make the graph. Would help tremendously in understanding the whole mess