After 1971, Indira Gandhi slashed the military’s pay packets. Through OROP, Modi regime must now course-correct
On February 17, the Defence Minister informed the military veterans community that his Ministry had finalised its views on the vexed issue of one-rank-one-pension and will propose to the Finance Minister to re-introduce military pension. If this is pushed through, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fulfill one of the first election promises.
It is only logical that all individuals who retire at a particular rank, after serving for the same number of years, should receive the same pension. However, this is not the case in the military today and has resulted in growing dissatisfaction among the military veteran community, over the past two decades, with protests spilling on to the streets.
Incidentally, while the most vehement and vociferous opposition that this proposal encountered was from entrenched bureaucrats in the Ministry of Defence, the latter ushered it in for themselves through the back door by introducing the concept of a non-functional upgrade. But they are not the only ones who can be accused of duplictious behaviour. For this, we should go back in history for a bit.
India celebrates December 16 as Vijay Diwas, the anniversary of its decisive victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war, which lead to the creation of Bangladesh. The war heralded a geo-strategic transformation of the region that greatly enhanced India's reputation and could be seen as the first step in its rise to regional prominence.
The emphasis it placed on the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, both in India and abroad, enabled her to establish herself as the sole arbitrator of our destiny for more than a decade, apart from the interregnum of the Emergency.
This comprehensive victory of 1971 was certainly a red-letter day for the Indian Armed Forces. And one could be excused for believing that the true architects of such a victory, the Indian Armed Forces, must have been suitably rewarded.
Undoubtedly, medals and other trinkets were generously showered on the forces and the Army Chief, General Sam Manekshaw, promoted to become India's first Field Marshal (though the manner in which he was subsequently treated tells a more unedifying story of the political class but that’s for another time). In addition, the Amar Jawan Jyoti was also constructed at India Gate, an existing war memorial built by the British to commemorate the sacrifices of the British Indian Army from 1914 to 1921.
But these frills apart, it is worth understanding the import of what exactly Gandhi and the political class, in connivance with a willing bureaucracy, deliberately did to honour the rank and file of the Armed Forces that had sacrificed much for this famous victory. She brought in a rule that restricted the right of serving soldiers to vote at their place of posting. This is something which they could do earlier and it is only now, more than four decades later, that the Supreme Court sought to partially correct the course.
Gandhi also ensured that the military, which used to have its separate Pay Commission, was brought under the aegis of the Third Pay Commission with absolutely no representation, except for the appointment of a consultant to advice the Commission on military matters .
The Commission not only refused to accept that the military needed to be dealt with separately, because of the difficult conditions it encountered, but also brought Military Pay and Pensions, which tell then were higher than that of civil servants, in line with those of the bureaucracy. The Commission radically changed the equation between military ranks and those of the civil services, to the disadvantage of the military. It lowered the Service Chiefs in the Warrant of Precedence and reduced overall pay and pensions.
But the icing of the cake was not all these “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” to quote William Shakespeare, but something more fundamental which reflects the utter lack of empathy of the ruling class and even the common citizen towards those who protect them.
After the war, the Government of India repatriated 90,000 prisoners of war to Pakistan but did not consider it either important or its own onerous responsibility to ensure the return of all Indian POWs taken by Pakistan during the conflict. It has now fallen on the Supreme Court of Indian to intervene and adversely comment on the actions of the Ministry of Defence for not submitting the current status of 54 Indian Prisoners of War who have been languishing in Pakistani jails since 1971.
Against this backdrop, it is difficult to ignore that Gandhi's actions, ably supported by a conniving bureaucracy and ignorant civil society, were deliberate designed to bring down the Armed Forces by a few notches. Thankfully, the current Defence Minister has broken with the past. If the Government follows through with his recommendations, it will herald a new chapter in civil-military relations that will also enhance motivation levels and morale within the services.
(The writer is a military veteran and now a consultant with the Observer Research Foundation)