ONE of the innumerable suggestions being thrown up to combat Maoists in the red corridor is to recruit ex-servicemen on a three year contract to fight the insurgents, and to engage retired sappers to clear mines. Undoubtedly ex-servicemen are in need of financial support, but not desperate enough to take up any job. Certainly not as mercenary soldiers to be used as cannon fodder and then be discarded, despised and dumped, when the job is done.
Such suggestions spring from another wrong notion that ex-servicemen by themselves will perform at the same level they did during their stint with the military. They did well and met all challenges during their active service because they formed part of well knit, highly motivated units with abundant 'spirit-de-corps' and above all, ably commanded by officers who led them from the front and ran greater risk than their men.
When these veterans are now called upon to come forward and join the Central Police Organisations (CPOs), it would be wrong to expect them to do as well as they did while in the military. In fact, and in all probability, they would very soon acquire the police culture and mores of the CPOs and descend to its level of morale and motivation. Their performance will conform to that of the CPO personnel with whom they would be so grouped.
Another factor to bear in mind is that veterans are a disillusioned lot, who were discharged in the prime of their lives and denied adequate compensation for early retirement. When the same government, which continues to treat them shabbily, turned a deaf ear to their pleas for justice and fair play and retracted from all promises made even by the highest authorities in the country, calls upon them to take on yet another heavy burden - a burden which the Home Ministry's much pampered police forces' are unable to carry -- what could be their response? Are they to be once more exploited and then discarded? Surely they are not mercenaries or labourers to take up a 3-year contract to bale out the country from this ever expanding, and as the Prime Minister calls, the most serious threat to the country.
If the government is serious about tackling the Maoist problem and wants to draw veterans into the fight, then it must as a first step, establish its sincerity and credibility and give them what their Supreme Commander, several prime ministers and defence ministers promised in public. The government must first win back their confidence and give them the promised One Rank-- One Pension. A soldier still falls much short of his civilian equivalent in monetary benefits and this disadvantage and disparity keeps increasing as the soldier advances in years due to the consequences of successive Pay Commissions. The government must show grace and give what it repeatedly promised. Additionally they must have the cover of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA.).
Any serious attempt in drawing veterans into this fight and expect them to deliver calls for a worthwhile package to be put on the table for them. Among the possibilities are taking retired army personnel to organise training schools in jungle warfare and counter-insurgency operations. Besides ex-servicemen below 44 years of age, invite soldiers who are left with two years of service and give them full pension to join the new set-up. They can be enrolled for a minimum of 12 years and their pay fixed as per their length of Colour service.
Form units, or at least companies of these veterans, preferably as per their regimental grouping. Draw maximum ex-servicemen from the states/areas where Maoists are active. Similarly invite retired and released short service commission officers to join units thus formed. They too must be engaged for a period of 12 years with pay to be followed by pension, over and above what is already being drawn as applicable.
To start with, a formation on the lines of an infantry division be created and deployed in one of the effected states along with the state police with a joint control centre. They must also consider the inadvisability of deploying a plethora of CPOs in one area, which often results in petty rivalries.
The Maoist menace is not going to go away in a hurry nor will it be possible to remove in a short span of time. It will require genuine and purposeful efforts to ameliorate the misery of the affected groups. Establish fair and friendly administration and bring about some minimum acceptable level of development.
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