A letter from Maj Gen (Retd) Satbir Singh, SM, Vice Chairman Indian Ex Servicemen Movement is given below indicating the step motherly treatment meted out by the MoD and the bureaucracy towards the essential needs, as well as of denial of due justice to the Defence Forces, in spite of various favourable judgements given by the AFTs and other Courts of the country. The Article “Unhelpful attitude
against military
- Apex court comes to the aid
of defence personnel”
by Lt-Gen Harwant Singh (retd) has appeared elsewhere in
this blog. Col LK Anand Retd
Date: 19 Sep 2012
To
Shri
A.K. Antony
Defence Minister
104, South Block
13, Parliament House,
New Delhi – 110001
Deny the Armed Forces their Rights:
The Raisond ’etre of Ministery of Defence
Dear Sh AK
Antony,
1. I am writing to you
once again to apprise you of MoDs indifference to the legitimate demands of the
Defence Personnel. This was highlighted by the Judgement of the Supreme
Court dated 04 Sep 2012 in a Rank Pay case of officers, granted to them on the
recommendations of 4th Pay
Commission. What is most distressing in this, is the double standards
adopted by the MoD, wherein, assurances were being given to the Defence
personnel that their interests were being looked after but in actual fact MoD’s
officials were manipulating to the contrary. Spreading false canard by
giving false affidavits to the Supreme Court and simultaneously trying to force
the Service Headquarters to withdraw their letter to Solicitor-General speaks
of their double standards. This attitude of the Ministry has hurt the
sentiments of all the Defence Personnel and has lead to a crisis of
confidence.
2. I am enclosing
an article published in the Tribune dated 18 Sep 2012, written by Lt Gen
Harwant Singh, a very senior and respected veteran. This article very
aptly highlights the unfortunate and unfair suppression of the Armed Forces by
the Govt. and bureaucracy.
3. The Supreme
Court judgment of 04 Sep 2012 has for reaching cumulative effects on Pay,
allowances, DA, gratuity and pension of 4th, 5th and 6th Pay Commissions of all ranks of
officers. This judgment read in conjunction with another Supreme
Judgment in the case of Maj Gen SPS Vains Vs UOI, a senior officer cannot draw
less pay and pension than his junior, the re-fixation of pay and pensions of
officers of rank above Brigadier would also have to be carried and
simultaneously. There is need to issue comprehensive implementation
instructions at the earliest to ensure the Court judgment is implemented in
letter and spirit within the stipulated time limit of three months.
4.
In last ten years, the Defence Forces have suffered a lot of ignominies and humiliations
due to apathetic attitude of the Govt. and the bureaucracy. The government is mistaken if it thinks that by
dragging its feet on the issue of the armed forces dissatisfaction with the
recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, it can make the issue go away. A
country that refuses to respect its armed forces will eventually end up getting forces that
will not respect the nations' aspirations. A country makes a sacred contract
with its soldiers that
while he/she will lay down his/her life when called upon to do so, the nation
will take good care of his/her and his/her family's needs to the extent its
resources would permit.
5. May we request you to
kindly issue clear and precise instructions for timely implementation of the SC
judgment? It is also requested that AFT judgments be implemented within the
time schedule and SLPs are filed only after due analysis of each case. Sir, the
MOD’s policy of contesting every judgment given in favour of Defence personnel
by the Armed Forces Tribunal goes against the every aim of establishment of
AFTS to give speedy and inexpensive justice to the Defence personnel.
With
Regards,
Yours Sincerely,
Jai Hind
Maj
Gen (Retd) Satbir Singh, SM
Vice
Chairman Indian Ex Servicemen Movement
satbirsm@yahoo.com,
satbirsm@yahoo.com,
Copy
to :-
Gen
Bikram Singh, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM, ADC
Chief
Of the Army Staff
Integrated
HQs of Armed Forces (Army)
South
Block, New Delhi-110011
Chief of the Naval
Staff
Integrated
HQs of Armed Forces (Navy)
South
Block, New Delhi-110011
Air
Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne, PVSM, AVSM, VM
Chairman
Chiefs of Staff Committee and
Chief
of the Air Staff
Integrated
HQs of Armed Forces (Air Force)
Vayu
Bhawan, New Delhi-110011
So here we go again! For Major General (R) Satbir Singh Rank Pay judgement is another occasion to piggyback General's agenda? I wish that somebody will show me a single act of this Gentleman or another General for the benefit of Rank and File! Remember the Rank Pay anomaly came about when the Good General was worthy member of Army Pay Cell for Fourth Pay Commission. Yes that is the truth.
ReplyDeleteWill this defence minister without backbone ever do it? He is such an inefficient man that as Kerala Chief Minister, he was forced to resign due to indecisive attitude. Then Sonia wanted a puppet as defence minister and hence he is there.
ReplyDeletethis is true that bureaucracy is trying its best to suppress the status, image and power of armed forces. but this is not the only truth. our own officers and our attitude is equally responsible for that. i know my views are not related to this topic, but at the moment i am really hopeless and want to take out my frustration. i have got several examples where our own organization has forced us to feel helpless. i am citing one incident; a drunkard husband of a maid beats and abuses his wife in an officers house and would you believe everybody including CMP distances itself from the issue and leaves the officer with no choice but to go to a police constable and request him to solve the problem. fighting arms may not be facing this problem because they have man power but what about supporting arms. if we can not protect our own officers and soldiers, how ll we protect our country. we ll keep waiting for orders from bureaucrats. we ourselves have become their slaves. this language might appear very crude to most of us, but this is the reality. suppose you are in uniform at a public place and something goes wrong with you, can you do anything? NOTHING i believe. you can not behave like others because you are in uniform and nobody will come for your help except for your friends. later on you will face a court of inquiry also.
ReplyDeletei had attended a raising day party at a small station as a guest. some civilian guests like DM, SP from civil were also invited. officers below brig rank were totally left on their own to take care of themselves, whereas civil officers were being looked after like GOD. is it correct? if we are not treating our officers at par with them, how can we expect it from them?
recently in TOI i read that an army officer in delhi was looted and beaten up brutally by a group of 4 goons. he was treated in AIIMS and since it was a medico-legal case, an FIR had to be lodged. the officer was sent from one police station to other for 15 days when finally he wrote to an IPS officer and his case was lodged. what were our officers doing? why didn't they take interest? this can happen to anybody. what SOP do we have to deal with these kind of cases. i am really feeling unsecured. why did this happen? why the officer had to roam around for 15 days? could this have happened to any IAS or IPS or even class II civil adm officers? i think NO. this is because our image has become like this. you go to a thana, a head constable rank police will not talk to properly, leave aside IPS or IAS officer (some of them are still sensible). think otherway round, if a DM/SP comes to your area, he will not be attended by anybody less than CO/commandant. we should make our image such that people should think 100 times before misbehaving with you. i am not trying to say that we should make terror among people, but, yes; we will not tolerate anything non-sense.