IESM: Rally at Jantar Mantar- eerie silence is deafening

Dear Raj and Friends,
I was rather disconcerted to learn that till date, no official communication has been sent by the Service Chiefs to the government on the case pertaining to the past pensioners. The issue has been occasionally raised at the working level but COSC has apparently chosen to keep away from the conflict.
The first letter on pensions was issued four months ago on 11 Nov 2008 , and the veterans have been on the streets for nearly three months. I think, it is imperative on part of the chiefs to say some thing. Their silence is eerie and deafening.
I could hold myself no longer. And sent identical letters (below) to the CNS as the head of the COSC and the COAS.
Regards,
Maj Gen Surjit Singh (Retd)

Gen Deepak Kapoor, PVSM,AVSM,SM,VSM,ADC
COAS,South Block, DHQ PO, NEW DELHI 110011

YOUR EERIE SILENCE IS DEAFENINGThere are only two possible explanations for the dogged persistence of the recent stir: either the ex-servicemen are making unreasonable demands, or the government is insensitive to the anguish of the ‘retired and forgotten’. This impasse can only end if some one mediates and in my humble opinion, that role has to be played by you.

As far as we know, the service headquarters have so far chosen to not to intervene, and leave it for the past pensioners to fight their own battle. This, I find, is unfair, because it is an unequal contest. With very little bargaining power, the old soldiers are forever at the receiving end of the stick.

We are hard put to tell the past pensioners that for most of them, the government has only granted a multiplicand of 2.26 while for certain ranks the improvement factor is 3.00, or more. That this is because those fortunate ranks are on ‘fixed’ salaries or are covered by the ‘protection clause’ does not convince them, since it is not a cogent justification. They also find it hard to digest that a mere difference of one month in the date of retirement should make so much difference in their pensions for the rest of their lives.

At the end of the day, these protest rallies can only result in a further decline in the attractiveness of military service, which has already plummeted to an abysmally low level. I beseech you to take such steps as you deem fit, to resolve this issue.

I am sanguine that as the incumbent Army Chief, you would not like to be remembered as a bystander in this ‘battle royal’ And if, on the other hand, you believe that we, the veterans, have crossed the Laxman Rekha, then we must be told so, but with good reason.
Maj Gen Surjit Singh (Retd)

General Shankar Roychowdhury writes...
Whatever dissatisfactions on these and other aspects may have been expressed within the services, they did not find their way into the public domain, and the service chiefs too maintained a stiff upper lip, though they were undoubtedly concerned about its effects on their respective forces and with good reason. They jointly chose to highlight their unhappiness with stunning and totally unprecedented gesture of not accepting the new pay scales until anomalies had been looked into and ironed out and chose to continue with the existing pay scales in the interim period, a unique “Gandhigiri” in uniform, something unheard of earlier, which must have caused a flutter in the bureaucratic and ministerial dovecotes of South Block. Some in the print media, and at least, one irascible former diplomat were perhaps nudged to fume and splutter that it was really uppity for the services to “demand” pay scales, parity of service and protocol with the civil servants and all that — bad for discipline, don’t you know! Better keep these soldierwallahs at heel!
For ex-servicemen, parity in rank, pension long overdue