Chain of command, demand

Dear Members of the Press.
1. An article by Mr Shekar Gupta Editor– in–Chief Indian Express on 04 Oct 08 titled “Chain of Command Demand” has been very unfair to the defence services. A large number of veterans and their family members have responded with rejoinders. Some of the rejoinders had been sent to the PM and also released to the Press on 10 Oct 08. Another veteran Bring V Mahalingam has asked a number of questions to Mr Shekhar Gupta having direct bearing on our demands. His mail dated 05 Oct is attached for your information and action for wide publicity please. The questions are so pertinent and factual that the answers to these will sum up the injustices being heaped on the Defence Forces.

2. May we request you to give wide publicity to the rejoinder to enable the people of India to know the truth.

With Kind Regards,
Yours Sincerely,
Maj Gen Satbir Singh, SM
Vice Chairman Indian ESM Movement (IESM)


Dear Mr Shekhar Gupta,
I went through your article titled “Chain of Command demand” You have composed the article beautifully without any meat in it. I have the following questions to ask you.
(a) Does discipline imply accepting every decision of the cabinet howsoever erroneous or unreasonable it may be? If that is true, Sam Manekshaw should have gone to war with Pakistan in 1971 at a time chosen by the cabinet.
(b) When the Services raised the issue regarding the anomalies in the pay structure with the Government, if the Cabinet had a good reason to downgrade the services, as has been done, was it not necessary for the Government to inform the services and the servicemen the rationale behind the down gradation? Are soldiers not entitled to know why their status and pay scales have been down graded? I am sure we are not in a dictatorship and democracy demands a response in such issues. Incidentally, have you ever tried corresponding with the Government, its departments and organizations trying to get clarifications or decisions on any subject? They have developed a culture of remaining silent on issues of importance and as a result, never respond to queries thus leaving every one guessing. Are we to accept this state of affairs being in a Democracy?
(c) Are you aware that the issue regarding the Lt Col’s pay band has been created by the Committee of Secretaries and not the Pay commission itself? Are you aware of the logic why the Lt Cols alone have been left behind while upgrading the rest of the civil services to the next pay band?
(d) The pay commission recommended that the pension of PBOR be reduced from 70 % to 50 % consequent to their recommendation on lateral induction of ex servicemen. The cabinet took the decision to reduce the pension of service personnel from 70 % to 50 % without doing any thing about their lateral induction. Is this rank stupidity or does this indicate bias and vindictiveness? You can decide for yourself. Do you believe that the services should have accepted this cabinet decision and issued the order?
(e) Do you believe that this Government would have acted to rectify the anomalies had the services notified the cabinet order? Can you guarantee that?
(f) Had the Government kept quiet after the Cabinet Order has been notified, what in your view should have been the next step?
(g) Don’t you think that such a step would have been a bigger defiance of the Government and its authority?
(h) Are you aware, that similar anomalies, accepted by the services in good faith consequent to the earlier pay commissions are yet to be resolved by the Government? Does this not amount to betrayal? Don’t you thing that this is unbecoming of a Government? I believe even a banana republic would have shun to remain silent in similar circumstances especially in the case of Armed Forces.
(i) Are you aware that the court’s orders in Major Danapalan’s case has not been made applicable to the rest of the defence services personnel till today? Does the Government want every officer to go to the court and make a mockery of democracy and its ways? RTI applications have all remained unanswered. What do you suggest that the service headquarters and the ex– servicemen do in this case to get their dues without being branded indisciplined?
(j) In a democratic set up, personnel of the defence forces are barred from forming a union, engaging in “dharnas” or striking work. Under these circumstances, the onus of responsibility to safeguard the interests of the rank and file devolves around the Service Chiefs. Service Chiefs are accountable to the rank and file and the men have to be kept informed of such matters in time. Politicians and bureaucrats are used to keeping everyone guessing even in matters such as senior appointments or issuing government orders on subjects after the events have happened or issuing orders which cannot be implemented within the timeframe stipulated. Such things cannot happen in a military unit or a formation. These lots have no accountability towards any thing in this country, but Service chiefs do have a very major accountability obligation in such matters. It is impossible for a bureaucrat or a politician to understand these finer aspects of command function. The best they can do under the circumstances is, not to interfere with the command functions of the Service Chiefs.
(k) The services personnel retire much earlier than their civilian counterparts. Due to delayed promotions, their salaries are not comparable to personnel of equivalent years of service in civil at the time of their retirement. Pension, as we are all aware, is based on the last salary drawn. That being the case, how can both these groups be governed by the same set of pension rules or how can their pensions be equated? For example, take the case of a Service officer and an IAS officer who enter the service on the same date. The service officer retires at the age of 54 in the rank of Lt Col and his equivalent retires at the age of 60 at the minimum rank of Joint Secretary. In this case, the service officer receives his pension based on the salary of a Lt Col’s rank, at his 54th year’s service, while the IAS entrant receives his pension based on his grade, a Joint Secretary at his 60th year of service. Can you not see how his last pay drawn would have improved by the increments, promotions, increase due to revision by subsequent pay commissions, increased DAs in the 6 years? Do you know that the family Pension of both the individuals are also decided based on the last Pay drawn at the time of retirement? Due you not see that a service officer has lost out on rank, salary, increments, increase in wages due to subsequent pay commissions, increased DAs, service privileges for 6 years due to loss of 6 years of service in the name of keeping the Armed Forces young? After all these losses, do you want us to suffer loss of Pensions and Family pensions too? What fault have our families or we done to deserve this treatment in the hands of the bureaucrats? The case of the PBOR is still worse. How can the service in Armed Forces and civil service be compared? Do you think that representing these issues for which no response ever comes is an act of indiscipline?

Let me narrate a scene from the 1971 war to enable the countrymen to understand what discipline is. It was a bitter cold night on 15 / 16 Dec 1971. Our unit had been ordered to assault across the Basantar River in the Shakargarh Sector and establish a bridgehead across the river. The river and far bank of the river had been mined with a combination of anti personnel and anti tank mines. This included the jumping mines. Our patrols, which had operated in the area for over 2 nights, had confirmed this. The earlier day, our OP officer was killed while registering targets for the assault by enemy artillery when one of his defensive fire tasks was put on action. Despite all this information, the forward companies assaulted across the river. As the men crossed the obstacle, number of men and officers were killed and injured in the minefield and their dead and wounded bodies were lying in the minefield cum river obstacle. Luckily the first wave of assault was a success. The enemy infantry and a Armour within the defences had been neutralized. The second wave of the assault was to go once the success signal for the first phase was received. The success signal was received and the commanding officer gave out the password for the commencement of the second phase. The second phase of the attack commenced. No one thought of or questioned the order despite seeing the dead bodies and wounded men growling out of pain from within the obstacle system. That Mr Shekher Gupta is discipline. Do you think any other service in the country would have sacrificed, shown a sense of discipline or moral courage in the same way in similar circumstances? We never thought of our wives or the children who in any case would not have even recognized us due to separation. We had a total casualty of 201 all ranks dead and wounded in the operation.

Representing the genuine case of the soldiers who sacrifice everything in the name of the country, Regiment and the unit is no indiscipline. Swindling money from the developmental projects, housing and land allotment scams, flood relief funds, other relief funds, midday meal schemes, benefiting from business deals, twisting rules to award contracts for extraneous considerations etc are acts of gross indiscipline. I am sure you understand the difference.

With Best Wishes and warm Regards,
Yours Sincerely,
Brigadier V Mahalingam (Retired)