Heed the cry of the armed forces

When I was commissioned into the IAF in 1984, the air force pilot had the highest starting pay among the central government Class I officers. (That is history; the Book has been overwritten several times.)

Smitten by aircraft, bewitched by flying, fascinated by the frisson of foiling gravity, I joined theIAF. The smell of adventure in the,air, the prestige associated with the uniform and the decent quality of life it offered were simply inciting appetisers.. Oddly, till I was handed my first pay packet, after prevailing three rigorous years at the National Defence Academy and another exacting year at the Air Force Academy, I did not know what my startingpay would be!

Will I embrace the IAF again? I doubt. Gone are those days of chasing quixotic idealism to quench an inner itch. Now lads want to know how much their sweat will swell the bank account. Unless military service is made attractive, few will want to join it.

A decade back, an IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, a friend, told me he had brought out a paper on the need for officers both military and civilian to bury the hatchet, complement each other, and work together for the larger cause of nation-building insteadof cutting the other down to size. Although his supremacist brethren laughed his treatise out of court, I ditto his standpoint.

Though carved out of the same governmental womb, the professions of arms and file-pushing are as different, alas as cold to each other, as the Ambani brothers. So, in the long run, the answer lies in delinking both the pay and stature of the armed forces from their civilian counterparts.

As the nature of jobs, career prospects, hierarchy, attributes, hardships and workplaces are poles apart, the very precept of interse parity sounds disjointed. Actually it is preposterous to liken amajor general with 33 years of service to a joint secretary having 17 years under his belt.

The pyramidal promotion-prospects of the forces and everyone-makes-it framework of the civil services are beyond comparison. Therefore, prudence suggests that instead of indulging instructural tinkering through pay commissions, it makes sense to have a separate pay commission for the defence forces. That is the only durable solution.

As for now, the recently convened ministerial panel must heed the cry of the armed forces and reinstate its stolen status and benefits. It is their due. High morale is the best known force multiplier. A nation neglects its soldiers at its peril.

MP Anil Kumar a former fighter pilot of Indian Air Force
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M P Anil Kumar is a former fighter pilot with the Indian Air Force. He is a quadriplegic inmate of paraplegic Home at Kirkee, Pune. He Operates the vertically placed key board by holding a pen in the mouth.