IESM: Chairman's Desk

Date: Monday, 15 June, 2009, 10:52 PM
Dear Colleagues,
New Members
We extend a very heartful welcome to the following new members into the IESM family: (and thank Maj Gen Aditya Jaini for motivating them)
1. SL 3061 Maj Aravindakshan
2. IC 32561 Maj TS Bevli
OROP
Calls continue to pour in from ESM across India. Everyone is aware of the President having included OROP in her address to the Joint session of the Parliament on 4 June. With the issue having remained unresolved for so long there is a mix of hope, expectation, apprehension, trepidation…
Best regards,
Lt Gen (Emeritus) Raj Kadyan, PVSM, AVSM, VSM
Chairman IESM

Date: Tuesday, 16 June, 2009, 10:39 PM
Dear Colleagues,
Received an early morning call from an IESM District head in Haryana. His ESM team were always there for all the Jantar Mantar shows and were one of the first to voluntarily deposit their medals to press the government to accept OROP. Today he was agitated and complained against IESL claim (made in the Hindi Tribune, 16 June 2009) that it is with the efforts of Brig RK Gulia alone that the government has agreed to grant the long standing demand of OROP. In the newspaper report the IESL also severely criticised the ‘small ESM organisations’ for depositing their medals with the President.
It is not my intention to join issue with anyone or be judgemental. I only make a truthful report; readers can form their own opinions.
Best regards,
Lt Gen (Emeritus) Raj Kadyan, PVSM, AVSM, VSM
Chairman IESM

Veteran Voice: An Appeal
It is necessary that we Ex- Servicemen at this juncture, reduce to silence by an overwhelming vote those who so far have prevented union, and who at the same time have acted as if they had all the members in their pockets.
Do not be deterred from "Governing Body" of some Unions or Leagues whose intentions by the fact that this or that majority resolution does not suit you. Such resolutions may be altered in the course of time. But the disgrace of separating here without accomplishing any results can never be blotted out; should such happen it would be equal to a crime against our cause which is the cause of the whole ESM community.
But the form can be found in which minor differences of opinion can be resolved in harmony, which the striving for a higher universally acknowledged ideal, common to us all, demands.
Now friends, our sense of duty must be stronger than our self-will; our love for the cause must make us forget personal injustices we may have suffered; our entire thinking, feeling, and wishing must be consumed by enthusiasm for the work of rescue which we have to perform in common with Ex Servicemen all over the Nation. But perhaps one or other among you may say:
“These are but words, phrases which cannot stand before the real facts as they exist.”
We need the movement to gather voice and so let us join IESM in greater numbers to silence those who seek to silence the voice of the majority. We have full faith in the leadership of Raj Kadyan. The movement has grown leaps and bounds in a short span of time. Let us therefore doubly resolve to be motivated to maintain the momentum. We have miles to go before we achieve our goals!