Indian Defence Review

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

Anyone who saw AK Anthony thumping the desk in Parliament with both hands when Chidambaram announced OROP was sanctioned, would have also noticed the cynical mirth with which Anthony was bursting inwardly, not that the balance were not having problem controlling their laughter having squeezed the exchequer to its last dredges (scam after scam, subsidies that reach nowhere, playing rupee-dollar equation to multiply black money, fudging figures and what have you) in the hope the next government would sit on the streets with a begging bowl.

Anthony had approved the military’s Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP) for period 2012-2027 as also the 12th Five Year Plan based on a defence budget allocation at 3 percent of the GDP, but the defence budget in last two fiscals remained at 1.6 to 1.7 percent of GDP. The 10 percent hike in next fiscal will offer an apology of defence modernization. But do you need modernization in the first place when Anthony says defence forces are fully geared – don’t mind existing voids in ammunition and equipment to the tune of Rs 1,41,000 crores in the army alone. The fact that he has brought the military-industrial complex to its lowest ebb is evident from even senior DRDO officials admitting that they only have “some pockets of excellence”. It goes without saying that the 10 percent hike in defence budget does not match the LTIPP and the military will be forced to exercise more austerity and prioritize what acquisitions are possible with the money in hand. The fact that MoD cut down fuel for warming of the soldiers on the frozen frontier despite the severity of the current winter is in public domain already.  Kanwal Sibal, former Foreign Secretary wrote in his article dated 12th March 2013 ‘Adrift Without a Strategic Culture’, “Our failure to build an indigenous defence manufacturing base shows the fragility of our strategic thinking. We have reduced our defence expenditure to 1.7 % of GDP in the last budget….. That we produced Chanakya almost 2400 years ago is not sufficient ground to claim that today’s India possesses a strategic culture.” So when Anthony says most DRDO projects are running late and many late by over a decade, what exactly is his contribution being the longest serving defence minister of the country? So what if the capability gap is widening between our military and the PLA. They are just brothers after all and so what if they have gobbled some 400 square kilometers of Ladakh beyond Aksai Chin. We have not put the LAC claim lines of either side in public domain so we can always keep saying we have not lost an inch, which semantically is true; didn’t give an inch, only couple of hundred square kilometers!

But let us look at this announcement about OROP. Chidambaram said the OROP decision will be “implemented prospectively” for armed forces from 2014-2015, with government transferring Rupees 500 crores to the defence pension account in the current fiscal to “close the gap for all retirees (pre-2006 and post 2006) in all ranks. But, remember last year one fine morning all electronic and print media headlined “OROP Sanctioned”, which too was a cynical joke and pray who was the author? It so happens that many a secret come out in the cool environments of golf courses. So it was a former official of the MoD who revealed it was Anthony who ordered this news release while maintaining veterans will actually be give nothing. And, every time delegations of ex-servicemen went to meet Anthony, he would sympathize and tell them he would look into the issue, appoint a committee to look into it etc but never issued a clarification how such new about OROP having been sanctioned hit the media simultaneously across the board.

So how come this present so called largesse of Rupees 500 crores? Noot difficult to guess, is it? When Narendra Modi announced in the ex-servicemen rally at Rewari last year that he would be writing to the PM to sanction OROP, antennas must have gone up to steal the show before the new government takes oath. But, it is no secret that the present dispensation treats the military no better than a necessary evil, giving the distinction to India of being the only country in the world where soldiers and veterans (disabled in combat included) have to fight prolonged battles in civil courts to get their dues. The bureaucracy would have sat on any letter by Narendra Modi to Manmohan Singh on the issue, but then the brainwave would have dawned to attribute the credit to Rahul Gandhi, on lines of the additional three subsidized cylinders. So between Anthony and Chidambaram they would have arrived at this magical figure of Rupees 500 crores.

OROP is a measure to bridge the existing gap between a serving soldier’s pension and a veteran. The latter affected population may be some 25 lakhs or more considering some 60,000 retire annually from the army alone. But even if 25 lakh is taken as the ball park figure of affected veterans, then back of an envelope calculation shows that the allocation is far from correct because 500 Cr over 25 lakhs works out to Rupees 167 per month – this surely is not OROP. Let us not worry about the small numbers of officers (Lt Gens and above) who are already drawing fixed pensions and not really affected by OROP. Going by the manner in which this government has treated soldiers and veterans, any of the possibility exists: the eventual GoI letter that is issued will be quite different, even in terms of date of implementation, correcting which may take years; don’t ‘implement’ the letter at all – let veterans keep guessing who is getting it, who is not and let them keep representing; dish out Rupees 167/- per month or so and trumpet it the greatest welfare measure of UPA II. After all if the spectrum scam can be notional, why can’t OROP be ‘actually’ notional? First time readers not conversant about the current dispensation’s disdain for the military may gauge the same from the following:

The rank pay case of the army had to be fought by Major Dhanapalan and the Retired Defence Officers Association (RDOA) by moving court. After years of legal battle, the Supreme Court (SC) had envisaged re-fixation of pay for all affected military officers for Rank Pay with effect from 1st January 1986, the date of implementation of the Fourth Pay Commission. However, the MoD in its implementation order of the December 2012, based on the SC verdict, very mischievously changed it to “as on 1st January 1986”. The SC has summoned the then Defence Secretary (now CAG) for contempt of court. The dues since 1986 have still not been paid despite SC orders dated December 2012.

The grant of bounty of Non Functional Advancement to all central services officers by the 6th CPC and denying the same to the defence services officers is blatant display of bias against the military.

Despite over 20 anomalies still remaining unaddressed in the 6th Pay Commission, the 7th Pay Commission has again been appointed without a military member despite continuing demands by the military to do so.

A former Vice Chief had to file a case in Supreme Court for his disability pension having lost a leg in the 1965 Indo-Pak War as a young Captain. The cynical MoD challenged the disability pension of this gallant officer but lost the case. If a former Vice Chief has to fight such legal battle, you may well visualize what hope a disabled veteran soldier has.

It is quite clear that the present government has absolutely no intention of granting OROP as it should have been – same pension in same rank for pre 2006 and post 2006 retirees. In dealing with OROP, it has resorted to same tactics as in the ‘rank pay case’. The futile hope it nurture for garnering veteran votes is on the premise that veterans are fools. This happens when the three bags full coterie thinks when they have fooled the entire nation; these paltry 25 lakh strong veterans will fall in line anyway. The fact is that this announcement fools nobody other than perhaps the fellow who mans the military cell of the Congress who went on record in the past to say military personnel retiring should not be granted any pension at all. Himself a veteran, it is not known whether he was cashiered from service or resigned prematurely without doing pensionable service, finding life too tough in the army.

The fact today is that multiple veteran ex-servicemen associations have joined hands and along with their families form a sizeable vote-bank. Therefore, it would be prudent for ALL Political Parties to come out clearly what their stance is with relation to OROP and define the time limit by which it would be fully implemented, if they are in power. The second clear announcement from ALL Political Parties should be regarding voting by serving soldiers including commitment that they would order the Election Commission to ensure this down to the last serving soldier in the place of his posting, like any other citizen of India.

The present dispensation of GoI apparently has no intention to ensure that every soldier votes in the coming general elections. This is because their calculations playing upon caste, creed, and religion, and purchasing votes would get unbalanced should every soldier vote. If Election Commissioner Brahma being from Assam votes in Delhi like any other Indian citizen, on what basis is this being denied to the soldier especially when precedence exists in serving soldiers having voted during the 2007 UP State elections at Mathura, Kanpur, Allahabad and similarly in Delhi elections last year. If this is being denied now, it only proves that the Election Commission is not an independent body and under pressure from GoI like the CBI and IB – and we call this a democracy. If the Election Commission has been sending a special team inside Gir Forest to a remote village for just one single voter, why can it not send teams down to every unit level of the military? The current dispensation may ignore the public sentiments of Andhra and go ahead to cut that state in two pieces hurriedly for garnering few Lok Sabha seats but it should think twice before continuing to deny the voting rights to the over 1.3 million serving military personnel since last 67 years. The Supreme Court and the new government should institute an inquiry as to why this was not done, should this fundamental right of the soldier continue to be denied.