The term "PBOR" being removed from Military Writing

Dear Friends,
Jai Hind.
Today at Signals Vatika, New Delhi, during the Centenary Celebrations of Corps of Signals, Brig Lakshman Singh, Signals Veteran, introduced me to a serving General Officer from Army HQ, who confirmed that Army HQ has issued a letter ordering discontinuation the use of the word “PBOR”.
The General Officer has very kindly agreed to forward the scanned copy of the Army HQ letter on Monday, 7th Feb 2011 to Brig Lakshman Singh. As soon as the letter is received I will circulate it to you all.
Well done IESM. Congratulations.
Vande Matram
In service of Indian Military Veterans
Chander Kamboj.

English to Hindi translation
प्रिय दोस्तों,
जय हिन्द.
संकेत वाटिका, नई दिल्ली सिग्नल कोर, ब्रिगेडियर लक्ष्मण सिंह, सिग्नल वयोवृद्ध के शताब्दी समारोह के दौरान, पर आज मुझे सेना मुख्यालय से एक सेवारत जनरल आफिसर ने पुष्टि की कि सेना मुख्यालय एक विच्छेदन आदेश पत्र जारी किया है करने के लिए शुरू की का उपयोग करें शब्द "PBOR".
जनरल आफिसर बहुत कृपया के लिए उत्सुक सोमवार को, 7 फ़रवरी 11 ब्रिगेडियर लक्ष्मण सिंह को सेना मुख्यालय पत्र की प्रति स्कैन सहमत हो गया है. जैसे ही मैं यह पत्र आप सभी को प्रसारित करेगा प्राप्त होता है.
खैर IESM किया. बधाई हो.
वंद Matram
भारतीय सैन्य दिग्गजों की सेवा में
Kamboj Chander

Abolish sahayak system: House panel to Army

Tribune News Service New Delhi, March 4, 2010
A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence today asked the Indian Army to abolish the “colonial” practice of employing jawans as sahayaks of officers. It also expressed "strong displeasure" over the Defence Ministry's procedure to assess the exact level of indigenisation achieved by its production agencies to manufacture equipment.

On sahayaks, the committee asked the Army to abolish the "demeaning and humiliating" system. In an action taken report tabled in both the Houses of the Parliament, the committee said it was unable to comprehend why it was necessary to continue with the sahayak system that "lowers the self-esteem of a jawan" when the Navy and Air force have abandoned it.

Several jawans were engaged at the residence of senior officers for domestic work and to serve the family members of officers. In reply, to the committee's suggestion, the Defence Ministry had said a sahayak was "a comrade-in-arms" to officers.

The Army has issued instructions to its units to ensure that combatant soldiers were under no circumstances be employed on a job not in conformity with the dignity and self-respect of a soldier.
Abolish sahayak system: House panel to Army

Mumbai Mayhem: Captain Amitendra Kumar Singh who lost his left eye

Having witnessed the 60-hour battle against terror in Mumbai unrelentingly on television, images of bullets whizzing around, bloodied streets, grenade blasts and courageous men -- scaling walls and dropping from helicopters -- have been etched in our minds.

What many of us did not see were images of some brave men, caught in the path of the devastation they were trying to curb -- images of their homes and lives rocked by a stray bullet or a carelessly chucked grenade.

One such braveheart, Captain Amitendra Kumar Singh of the National Security Guard, found himself alone at the Bombay Hospital on November 27, injured in the attack, and unable to get in touch with his family and fiance.
The captain and his team arrived in Mumbai on the morning of November 27 and were sent straight to the site of action: The Oberoi Hotel.

As they closed in on terrorists, shrapnel from a grenade hit Amitendra's eye. He was immediately evacuated and sent to Bombay Hospital.

Captain Singh was preparing himself for surgery the next morning even as he recounted the horrors of that fateful evening for rediff.com Doctors believe his vision will be impaired after the surgery; in fact, he might even lose complete vision in his left eye.

His fiance, Dr Madhu Singh, a dentist, was at home in Lucknow [ Images ] when she received the news -- two whole days after the incident. She was getting ready to go to work and her husband-to-be called her from a borrowed cell phone, informing her of his injury.

Her heart literally stopped at the news, and she got on the next flight to Mumbai, arriving even before his parents. The frail-looking lady has been a pillar of support for her fiancee, wiping his bad eye and repeatedly assuring him of how proud she was of him.

The captain hails from Lucknow and has been posted in Gurgaon, near Delhi. It is easy to forget how young this man is as he smiles and tells you his horror-laden yet heroic tale of the terrorist attacks. However, his emotions come pouring through in tears when he remembers details that are too painful to bear, and one realises that this hero is barely 25 years old.

Once the tears have been wiped and traces of his mischievous smile start playing at the corners of his mouth again, he jokes, saying, "Arre, don't take my photo today. Take it tomorrow when I have shaved."

Image: Captain Amitendra Kumar Singh with his fiance a day before surgery. Text, photograph: Insiyah Vahanvaty

Present status: The officer who lost an eye at The Oberoi.
Here is a heart-wrenching tale of Captain Amitendra Kumar Singh, a National Security Guard commando, who lost sight in his left eye while fighting the terrorists inside the Oberoi Hotel. While the apathy of the nation towards the war-heroes is an oft-repeated story, his angst-ridden bitterness towards the army is unusual, to say the least.

After shuttling back and forth between Lucknow’s Command Hospital, Chennai’s Sankara Netralaya Eye Hospital and Delhi’s R&R Hospital, Captain Singh was discharged a day before Holi and allowed to return to the NSG camp in Manesar, where he is posted.

“I was so sick of hospitals by then — they all said the same thing, that my eye was damaged beyond repair, and that I would have to get a glass eye, which I didn’t want to do.”

Once he was back at the NSG camp, Captain Singh realised that people have short memories, and if you are injured in the army, you are little more than a liability.

“People’s attitudes towards me have changed. Earlier, they had the utmost confidence in my abilities — I was given plum tasks to take care of. Now even though I can do everything, including driving, firing and physical tasks, all the meaty jobs go to others, and I am given things to do that are not in keeping with my rank. That makes me feel bad.”

“But what can I do? I have to serve here. Now I am doing a desk job — I take care of the administration and running of the camp. I’ll never be able to participate in operations again. It’s not like the US army where any capable person can serve. Serving in the army always been my dream, which is now shattered.”

He makes it clear that the Shaurya Chakra did not serve as salve to his wounds. “I don’t want the Shaurya Chakra. Take it back and return my eye to me. P V Manish (the other Shaurya Chakra awardee) and I were together at the Oberoi. I lost my eye and he was hit in the head by a grenade. The right side of his body was paralysed for some time, but is getting better now. In such operations, you should either die or come back safe and sound. If you come back injured, you don’t get any respect.”

Attacking the aam aadmi's swabhiman

Sun, Mar 1 05:54 AM
Sudheendra Kulkarni
In a recent interaction with my party's young campaigners in the coming parliamentary elections, I asked them, "What is the first and foremost expectation of young people like you from the next government?" I was expecting them to say "employment", "better education" and so on. One of them, an alumnus of IIT Delhi who studied and worked abroad and has now taken to political activism, gave a one-word reply: "Swabhiman" (self-respect).

My instinctive interpretation of his answer was that he was referring to India's honour and self-respect. "No, I am not talking about desh ka swabhiman and desh ka gaurav. Every patriotic Indian, belonging to any party, wants India to be heard, honoured and respected more by the international community. What I am referring to is the self-respect of ordinary citizens. When the aam aadmi deals with the government in his own country, why is his self-respect routinely bruised? Why do government officers and employees behave with citizens as if they are our masters and we their subjects? Why do they make us feel that they are doing us a favour when the service or information we are seeking is our right as citizens? And, often, the 'favour' is done to us only after we have met their demand for bribes."

Why have we failed to make the system respect the citizens more? It's a complex problem, but some roots of it lie in the fact that the government has two parts-the democratically elected executive that is accountable to the people and has to seek their mandate; and the 'permanent government' of the bureaucracy that is largely unaccountable and remains unchanged even after Party A is voted out and Party B is voted in. It is high time the progressive section of our political class and leaders of civil society paid serious attention to reforming these "permanent rulers" to make them truly citizen-friendly. Good governance is being much talked about in the current election campaign. We can move towards this goal only by introducing radical citizen-centric reforms.

Write to: sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com
Read more:Attacking the aam aadmi's swabhiman