Foreword
"Friends, our former soldiers have to wander
in the hour of need, of illness. Our soldiers, our modern age Dadhichis,
who lost their hands, legs, eyes in the battlefield, who sacrificed themselves
on the mother nation. If they have to beg for aid in the hospitals, at
the railway stations, Friends there can not be anything worse that I can
imagine. This is a matter of concern and responsibility for us and we
have to change these circumstances.
Who stops our former soldiers to live with honour
and self respect, and their genuine demands getting fulfilled? We have been
hearing about one rank, one pension since many years, what is the
problem..?
Today I publically demand from the Government of
India on behalf of the army men and ex-service men of this country, to publish
a white paper on the status of one rank, one pension scheme.
And Friends, I am sure that if in 2004, Vajpayee
Ji would have formed government, then today this problem of one rank
one pension would not have been complicated..!
Friends, people would have sat together and Atal
Ji would have found a solution to this problem, and would have given our former
servicemen live with pride and honour ".
Narendra Modi speaking at the Ex-Servicemn
Rally - Rewari, Haryana - 15 Sep 2014
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Why has Modi
let down
India's
Military veterans?
Major General Mrinal Suman (Retd)
Yes, the veterans are feeling let down by a leader
whom they trusted. As the sun finally sets on 2014, they will remember the
year for broken promises by an arrogant regime.
The recent remark by the Defence Minister that the
veterans would get 80 percent satisfaction on 'One Rank One Pay' (OROP) has
taken them aback.It was a shocking and a deplorable statement, to say the
least. To soldiers, it was a sheer breach of faith. They wondered if
their trust in BJP was misplaced. OROP has ceased to be a question of
financial compensation. It has become an article of faith with immense emotive
connotations.
It symbolizes non-fulfillment of a government's
solemn commitment to its ex-soldiers and
is considered symptomatic of the moral deprivation of the worst kind.
The veterans feel used and abandoned by a
two-faced political party.
The NDA government could not have handled the
issue in a more graceless and absurd manner. Whereas prompt sanction of OROP
would have assured continuous support, sheer ineptness of its decision
makers has made the government lose the goodwill of such a large segment of the
society in such a short time.
The veterans are at a loss to understand as to why a government
should grudge a few hundred crores to its soldiers when it readily writes off
thousands of crores of rupees as 'Non Performing Assets' of the public sector
banks. They wonder whether the Prime Minister is a party to this
reneging of a solemn promise made to the soldiers or he is being taken for a ride
by his ill-advised Defence Minister and the bureaucracy.
A number of questions are agitating the minds of
the veterans:
A) Did they err in believing Narendra Modi when he
promised OROP before elections? Were those assurances only to
gather votes and never meant to be fulfilled? Have they been taken for a ride?
Why was he not honest enough to ask the veterans to scale their expectations
down while seeking votes? He promised OROP and not 80% OROP.
B) Should a Prime Minister be trusted for his
public commitment made from the ramparts of the Red Fort? Does the Prime
Minister of a country make grand promises without knowing financial
implications? Should the citizens of the country assume that every promise made
by their Prime Minister should be discounted by 20%? Is that the quotient of
his earnestness and trustworthiness?
C) The projected saving by reducing OROP by 20%
would amount to a few hundred crores. Would that paltry amount justify a Prime
Minister going back on his words and losing his credibility?
D) Does the Prime Minister realise that shabby and
apathetic treatment meted out to ex-servicemen by an insincere government can
never motivate a serving soldier as he sees himself as an ex-serviceman of the
future? Since assuming office in May 2014, the Prime Minister has been
repeatedly asserting that OROP has been sanctioned. However, no orders
have been issued so far.
The government has been unable to work out the
modalities in the last seven months indeed an astonishing example of
the much hyped 'good governance'.
Slogan like 'achhe din' sound so phony and hollow now.
Compare the attitude of Modi, Jaitley and Parrikar with what President Obama said to
the veterans at the Phoenix Convention Center on 17 August 2009, "You have
fulfilled your responsibilities. And now a grateful nation must fulfill ours.
And so long as I am President of the United States, America will always fulfill
its responsibilities to you", he declared.
Obama termed America's commitment to
its veterans as sacred bonds and a sacred trust Americans are honour bound to
uphold. He meant 100% and not 80%. Is there any wonder that America has been
the undisputed world power whereas every foreign invader succeeding in
enslaving India?
The critical question that is agitating the minds of all the
veterans is the volte face on OROP being done with the knowledge and
concurrence of Modi? As the veterans continue to have faith in him, they prefer
not to believe such a premise.
The only other plausible reason could be that some elements (both
political and bureaucratic) that are inimical to Modi's standing are conspiring
to dent his reputation by making him lose his credibility. It appears to be a
convincing explanation to most veterans.
It is time that Narendra Modi takes the matter in his own hands
and acts. It was he who promised OROP and the onus is totally on him to
deliver.
Finally, every leader will do well to remember
that credibility is a meta-virtue. Once lost, it can never be regained and the
leader forfeits the right to command respect.
Major General Mrinal Suman, AVSM, VSM,
PhD, commanded an Engineer Regiment on the Siachen Glacier, the most
hostile battlefield in the world. A highly qualified officer (B Tech, MA
Public Administration), MSc (Defence Studies) and a Doctorate in Public
Administration) he was also the Task Force Commander at Pokhran and was
responsible for designing and sinking shafts for the nuclear tests of May 1998.
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Thank you sir for your correct remarks , noW it is cleared to us and whole world that WHAT our PM IS PROMISED IT IS FOR 80 PERCENT ALL HIS VASON IS A BIG ZERO BECAUSE NOTHING CAN BE HAPPENED WITH IN 80 PERCENT IT IS JUST MAKING PUBLIC FULL LIKE HE MAKE OUR SOLDIERS IN SIEACHINE . NOW WHOLE WORLD WILL KNOW OUR DM THAT HIS ALL WORK WILL BE ONLY 80 PERCENT AND OUR PM IS SATISFIED FOR THAT SO NOTHING WILL HAPPN IN INDIA IN PLACE OF ACHHE DIN WE WILL SUFFER A LOT IN COMMING YEAR PLEASE START RIGHT NOW TO THROUGH OUT THIS GOVT WHOSE PM IS NOT ABLE TO KEEP HIS PROMISE NOT ONLY ONCE HE MADE THIS OROP FULFILLMENT PROMISE NO OF TIMES SO DEAR FRD PLEASE DO ALL THING 80 PERCENT WITHOUT DOING ANY RISKY JOB AS OUR BABUS AND NETAS ARE SATISFIED WITHIN THAT
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