Another gameplan to fool ex-servicemen?

Another gameplan to fool ex-servicemen?
by Lt-Gen Harwant Singh (retd)

 
EX-Havaldar Ruldoo Ram, now in his seventies, is a veteran of many wars. In 1947-48, he fought in the Kashmir War and was hit by an enemy bullet in the leg. Later he took part in the 1962 and 1965 wars. He also fought the insurgents in the North East. He lives with his daughter-in-law and grand children in a remote village in Himachal Pradesh.
 
He was retired early. Relentless inflation, since he retired, has left his pension with little purchasing power. His son Naik Ram Dev, his only child, had died in the Kargil conflict. Experience had made him somewhat cynical. He no more cared for the false promises of the government. He had endlessly discussed the subject of ‘one rank one pension’ and the unfair 33-year conditionality, the Fifth Pay Commission had introduced, was meekly accepted by the military high command, and later approved by the government. 
 
The issue of ‘one rank one pension’ was first taken up in 1982. Since then, nearly a million ex-servicemen have died, in the vain hope of getting a better deal. Their number is decreasing by six to seven thousand every month. In the next 15 to 20 years, nearly all those ex-servicemen, to whom ‘one rank one pension’ is of concern will disappear from the pension list. Therefore, for the Government of India, it is a case of decreasing expenditure at the annual rate of 5 to 6 per cent. The demand for ‘one rank one pension’, in any case, involves a small amount of money and is poor compensation for early retirement, harsh and risk-filled service environment, turbulence in married life and children’s education, extremely limited promotional prospects and the added disadvantage of 33-year conditionality. Early retirement itself imposes a bar on higher pension, which otherwise would accrue due to longer service, as is the case with the civil employees.
 
Ruldoo Ram asks what could be the compulsions, which prompted the government to suddenly appear sympathetic to the ex-servicemen’s cause over which it showed little concern in the past? A ludicrous case where Brigadiers get more pension than Major-Generals is yet to be resolved by the government. Then how does it hope to fool the ex-servicemen through this new gameplan?
Ruldoo Ram’s native wisdom told him that it must be some unthinking babu who had put out the news that the issue of ‘one rank one pension’ had finally been closed by the government. Then some wily politician must have realised the folly of such an announcement when the State Assembly elections were just around the corner. Obviously, it was the prospect of losing the ex-servicemen and their families’ votes in the coming elections which made the government change its mind and reopen the case. Ruldoo Ram was not the one to be taken in by such plays.
 
He says it is a case of dangling a carrot before the ex-servicemen till election time and then jettisoning it. The babus will once more make the politicians bite the dust. They would simply frighten the politicians with the certainty of a similar demand by the civil servants. It is perhaps too much to expect the politicians to grasp the simple fact that the terms and conditions of service of the civil servants are totally different from those of servicemen. Those who retire at 58 cannot claim equality with those who retire in their thirties, forties or early fifties. 
 
Does the government not realise that the basic principle of dealing with the troops is, not to raise false hopes and feed them promises, not intended to be fulfilled? It is a dangerous game to play and sure to result in loss of confidence in the system.
 
While Ruldoo Ram was immersed in a discussion with his colleagues, his daughter-in-law brought tea for them. As they took their first sip, their eyes met. His eyes were moist, partly from embarrassment and a bit out of sorrow. There was no sugar and little milk in the tea; his meagre pension could do no better. In fact, there was nothing sweet left in Ruldoo Ram’s life.


[Tribune India]