The instrumentality of the military

Military Veterans
Pension is based upon pay drawn at the time of retirement. Ex-servicemen have held a long-standing demand for “One-rank-one-pension” (OROP), which means that regardless of when a fauji retired, those who retired with the same rank and the same length of service should receive the same pension. This demand is based upon the fact that faujis who retired long ago draw much less pension and are in difficult economic circumstances than those who retired more recently. OROP had not been acceded to by successive CPCs, even though OROP had been agreed to in-principle by several elected representatives in various Union Governments. Faujis continue to believe that such refusal has been the unofficial stand of the bureaucracy. It is learnt that, while discussing the OROP issue recently, a senior official of Defence (Finance) has said, “Finances are not an issue” or words to that effect, since the amount in question may be a mere Rs.600 crores. This view from the Finance angle clearly reinforces the fauji's apprehension that the bureaucracy is at the root of consistent refusal.

Hitherto, military veterans had always silently accepted whatever the CPCs have dispensed by way of pension and allowances over the decades. The CPCs have always been headed and dominated by bureaucrats, who have little idea of and even less interest in the working and living conditions of the fauji or the ex-fauji, and have made decisions for the single largest segment of central government servants without their representation in the CPCs. The unfairness of successive CPC dispensations was not lost on military veterans, but their long-ingrained habit of acceding to “superior authority” hitherto ended in simple grumbling, mostly at the personal level. It needs to be noted that the worst sufferers of the neglect of ex-servicemen are the Jawans who, after retirement at a young age, are too busy trying to reconstruct their lives to be able to afford time to join hands to make demands concerning their pensions.

However in late 2008, following the 6CPC, military veterans have organised themselves to agitate vigorously and have taken the unprecedented step of offering satyagraha by relay fasting at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi since mid-December 2008, and also in metros, cities and towns elsewhere in India. Veterans' fasting unto death – recently withdrawn, though the relay fasts continue – has been kept out of the media possibly due to bureaucratic influence on government. Thus, Veterans' are even more disillusioned since nobody appears to care about them. Earlier, senior retired officers of general rank, demonstrating silently in the Boat Club area with prior intimation to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Police, were arrested by the police and taken to the Tilak Marg Police Station. The continued stonewalling by government including the arrest of veterans mentioned above has turned the mood of military veterans from unwilling acceptance into one of disappointment and demanding anger. It may be argued that the voice of the military veterans is not important in the future of the country, but such an argument neglects the fact that the serving fauji is well aware of the socio-economic conditions of military veterans, and also knows all too well that he will one day join their ranks. Hence, today's neglect of military veterans is tomorrow's neglect of the serving fauji, and this is taking its toll on the morale of the fighting man.

Maj Gen SG Vombatkere (Retd)
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