SCPC: Is it Money, Honour or Courage?

As happened with the previous Pay Commissions, the same has been repeated with the 6th Pay Commission. Assurances given to the Chiefs of the three Services that their recommendations will be fully taken care of, have fallen through, as in the past. Pay scales, parity with civil services are crucial matters, but what is galling is that every time a representation was made to the Government to have a separate pay commission for the Defence Services due to peculiar nature of their responsibilities and functioning as also the hazards, dangers and privations the members of Defence Services have to undergo, this has been ignored. It is a well known fact that those in civil appointments lack even the rudimentary knowledge about the Defence Services and the way they operate and function.

The Pay Commissions were there upon asked by the Defence Services to at least co-opt one member!! A deaf ear has been turned to this also every time. The Pay Commissions do have members and staff from organizations like the Railways and one is at a loss to understand any cogent reason, why and how all the Pay Commissions have failed to co-opt a member in Uniform!! This is blatantly ignoring the Defence Services, who have been loyal to the hilt to the Nation and the Constitution. Thousands of its officers and soldiers have laid down their lives to defend the territorial integrity and interests of the Nation. FOR TOMORROW OF EVERY INDIAN, THEY HAVE GIVEN THEIR TODAY, on so many occasions. Time and time again they have charged at the enemy with the slogan BHARAT MATA KI JAI and JAI HIND on their lips. Such disciplined bodies of troops have been treated in such a shoddy manner by the bureaucracy and the politicians! It is a very serious matter indeed and needs investigating!

There can be very serious and long term repercussions of such attitude by those in authority! Discipline, loyalty, obedience cannot be taken for granted by higher ups. Some best known battalions, naval and air force elements have mutinied in the past because their superiors did not look after them or there were higher policies in force which did not take in to account sensitivities of all ranks. A similar situation is being reached now in the Defence Services because of the attitude of the Pay Commissions, bureaucracy and our political bosses.

At least the Veterans have come to the conclusion that enough is enough and they have to protest, agitate and make their voice heard against the insensitivity's of the powers that be by ignoring very genuine and repeated representations by the Defence Services. It will be the first time that such protests will be organized at large scale, all over India, by those who have desisted from taking any such steps so far. The feeling will no doubt percolate to those in Uniform as well. But this is what can happen when a body of people, including soldiers, seamen and airmen hit a stone wall; that is the bureaucracy and the politicians.

Senior officers of the Defence Services are trained to be polite and respectful to all and in particular to their superiors, including those not wearing uniform. They have accepted willingly to be faithful and loyal to the Constitution of India, unlike the Military across the Borders. There have been no attempts at a military coup in India. This courtesy and discipline should not, however, be mistaken for subservience. Even disciplined people have limits to patience, if their genuine requests are ignored time and again and they are made to feel slighted and neglected. Their feelings can boil over or they can adopt an attitude of ambivalence.

Any nation that ignores its Defence Forces is doomed. Mere high rate of growth and booming economy are not what makes nations survive in the long run. In site of being called SONE KI CHIRRIYA, Indian Forces were defeated by the invading armies time and again in the past. India faces serious nuclear and conventional threats from some of our neighbors. An unhappy military may not acquit itself well in the future.

Parochial thinking of the bureaucracy to serve their own ends through the rather ignorant and inexperienced politicians who do musical chairs at New Delhi, after every election is doing a great harm to the security of the Nation by doing down the Defence Services. The Defence Services are no more preferred career of the young and quite a few of those who do join up ask for premature retirement. Even in the ranks, the preference is for Para military forces. Though weapons and equipment are essential, it is finally the men behind the gun who matter most. This continued apathy of the powers that be, will have long term adverse effects on the fighting efficiency and security of the Nation, if officers and men of the Defense Forces remain a dissatisfied lot.

Serving and retired personnel of the Defence Forces are a highly competent resource in all disciplines of technology. Some of them are most highly qualified in electronics, civil and mechanical engineering, Information Technology, medical field, management, flying, seamanship, Personnel Management. You name the field and the expertise is there. It is a very wrong perception that military personnel are good enough for security duties only!!! Such qualified personnel need to be paid in line with their counter parts in the civil side.

It is not too late to take bold measures to assuage the feelings of hurt, neglected and being slighted amongst the Defence Forces. The review of the Pay Commission recommendations should not be left in the hands of Group of Secretaries, who are top bureaucrats but the Prime Minister himself ought to take charge of the proceedings with a General Officer as advisor. Unless this is done, the bureaucrats will not suggest any tangible changes as they do not understand the functioning of the Defence Services and are not sensitive to their needs. They will suggest some incremental changes and put the ball in the court of the Ministers.

It is not too far fetched a situation, where the Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force as also the Army Commanders and equivalent, refuse to accept rather lucrative increase in their emoluments, unless all officers and men that they command and lead to war are duly compensated by the Pay Commission. Any such happening will leave the present Government red faced and make its chances of coming back in power in the forth coming elections, bleak indeed. It is up to the Congress Party President and the Prime Minister to show statesmanship and take bold decisions as asked for by the three Chiefs. This will be a masterly stroke to show to the Nation that this Government is bold, pragmatic and decisive. Otherwise the repercussions can be very serious indeed as regards the quality and efficiency of the Defence Services for decades to come. JAI HIND.

Lt Gen Harbhajan Singh, PVSM (Retd)