Responses to Express Editorial "It's the Uniform"

Lt Gen SS Mehta (Retd), Lt Gen BKN Chhibber (Retd), Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi (Retd) Lt Gen JFR Jacob (Retd), General VP Malik (Retd), at a seminar in Chandi Mandir in 2002. — A Tribune photograph

Dear All,
Ref: EXPRESS EDITORIAL
Posted online: Wednesday, September 03, 2008 at 0105 hrs
It’s the uniform"

You must all be aware of the front page headlines published in the Indian Express of 02 Sep 08, relating to the three Chief's objecting to some aspects of the cabinet cleared proposal on the pay commission recommendations(Link given above). After reading it I had prepared an article and sent it to the Editor of the Indian Express. The piece is enclosed as an attachment. I had initially not planned to make it public till it was published, but I have my doubts if it will be published. Hence the change of heart. The editorial in The Indian Express of 03 September 2008 further reinforces my thinking. I have since sent a Letter to the Editor, a copy of which is appended below.

Dear Editor,

All the respect I had for your newspaper, with "Journalism of
Courage" prominently featured at your masthead, vanished when I read the puerile Editorial titled "It's the Uniform….." in your edition dated September 03, 2008. The shock was greater when it followed the front page headline story on the same subject you broke only the day before. Did the bureaucrats get the editor in question in the interim or did he not consult the news editor? I cannot think of any other plausible reason as I am aware that your editors are usually well read and understand nuances of important news.

Are you really serious when you say that the military's complaint regarding being deliberately downgraded is 'spurious'? It is obvious that the worthy editor has no idea about the military and how important status is for them. Neither it seems he is aware of what the military's stand has been all these months. Throughout the sordid episode generated by the injudicious recommendations of the pay commission over the last six months, the military has not asked for enhancementof pay, only parity at levels that have existed hitherto. Therefore, for the editor to pass scurrilous comments on the officers of the defence forces and particularly against the service chiefs, is not only downright unfair but is
an attack on their sacred uniform.

When the next war comes by, though no soldier wants one, the
same editor will no doubt be singing paeans for the military, but perhaps it is fashionable to do down the military when peace prevails, not because of IAS and IPS worthies, whom he seems to worship, but because of the same military which he has attacked with his pen or is it the cursor on his lap top today?

Sincerely
Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi


Dear Editor,
"Fearless" is the adjective one always associated with the Indian Express. But of late this needs to be replaced by 'timid and spineless'. Nothing else explains the content of the editorial, "It's the uniform" on 3 September 2008, which seems to be edited by an IAS bureaucrat. One is shocked at the level of ignorance displayed regarding civil-military relations. It is clear that the editor has no idea of the importance of the pecking order established by the Warrant of Precedence and any effort to disturb this balance is fraught with danger for the country both in war and peace. For several years after Independence, the police service was considered junior and inferior to the Armed Forces - there was absolutely no equivalence. Regrettably, over the years successive governments permitted IPS officers to (mis)appropriate and flaunt army rank insignia without regard to years in service, which has caused heartburn and avoidable conflict whenever called to work in AID TO CIVIL POWER.

The Armed Forces do not work in a vacuum (like the editor) but interacts constantly with other departments of the government – as in Bihar and J&K at present. They are the ones who step in to bail out the government and pull the chestnuts out of the fire when the bureaucracy and the police fail. Let us not fool ourselves that 'the uniform itself ensures they will receive a certain dignity and respect'. Thanks to the media and the IAS/IPS combine, the uniform has long ceased to be attractive or awesome– and this is borne out by the editorial - so perish the thought .

You are right in saying, "The pay commission held sharply differing views on what constituted an equivalent rank" but then the Pay Commission was "of the IAS, by the IAS and for the IAS." But whether these views are "Rational" or not is debatable. It never was the commission's mandate anyway to tinker with the existing rank structure which is what the Service Chiefs are fighting for – earth shattering or not. In any case that is something that you may have trouble understanding considering your level of ignorance!

Cdr CH Gomes (Retd)