NEED OF HOUR TO ENHANCE MORALE OF ARMED FORCES

The recent attacks by Hamas on Israel and the Israeli counter offensive in Gaza has ignited a debate about vulnerability of Nations and security of citizens across the Globe. These crisis have been pointing towards failure on part of national intelligence, armed forces and the Israeli government to forewarn and protect the citizens from terrorist attacks of Hamas. The other side of this conflict indicates need to have a well-motivated, trained and fully modern armed forces like Israel to carry out an effective counter offensive to decimate a terrorist outfit like Hamas. India’s defence think tank and the government must ponder over the lessons from such crisis and evolve a national security strategy for safety of own citizens from any such venture by our adversaries in future and keep the armed forces in utmost state of readiness and highest morale.

A national security encompasses a stable political environment, faster economic growth, and strong military preparedness. When a soldier speaks, a nation must at least hear and there is still a lot left to do regarding their grievances and its direct impact on the morale of armed forces and soldiers. Some of the lingering issues that have remained unresolved till date are:

Resettlement of Veterans: About 60, 000 soldiers retire every year from the Indian Armed Forces and these Ex-Servicemen (ESM) or Veterans are in the age bracket of 35 to 45 years. They constitute a well-trained, self-motivated and a highly disciplined work force and government has to do a lot more in this field as the agencies involved in their resettlement have not been able to meet their aspirations and most veterans still land up in security services or remain unemployed.

Pension Anomaly: In 1973, the Central Government terminated ‘One Rank One Pension’ and brought down the pension of a soldier from 70 to 50% of last pay drawn and this was equated with civilians who were raised from 30 to 50 % of last pay drawn putting the soldier at a disadvantage and huge loss. No government thereafter has ever thought of rectifying this grave injustice to soldiers and not even a word of justification or reasoning has been given so far.

Asymmetries and Disparity in Time scale pay, Pension, and Allowances: The indiscriminate decision by UPA government in 2008 to introduce and aggravate asymmetries in the pay and pension and allowances between the different police organizations and armed forces continues till date and is a matter of widespread discontentment. Further sanction of OROP at apex scale to all civil services and police officers accompanied by grant of “Non-Functional Upgrade” (NFU) also called “nonfunctional financial up-gradation” (NFFU) to all civil services including the Indian Police Service less armed forces made this asymmetry and disparity more discriminating. The unexplained exclusion of Armed Forces from the NFU, has a corrosive impact on the Armed Forces morale, status, cohesion, and national security. Ignoring the serious longterm implications of NFU, the issue has been ignored by all subsequent governments. The NFU issue is now being opposed by the central government in Apex Court where even the Central Para Military Forces have been granted NFU.

One Rank One Pension: OROP “implies that uniform pension be paid to the Armed Forces Personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement and any future enhancement in the rates of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners.” This real intended OROP has not seen light of the day so far. The OROP that has been granted by government is like one-time enhancement of pay and allowances once in five years. Prolonged protests by veterans, litigation in apex court and even government election promises have failed a soldier’s genuine demand.

Improve Service Conditions for Short Service Commission Cadre: The original idea behind the Short Service Commission was to keep the armed forces young, gave officers in their 20s an opportunity to experience military life, while allowing them to have the satisfaction of serving our motherland in their youth and going on to pursue other careers thereafter. Later the scheme has been used for overcoming short fall officers by extending the duration of service from 7 to 14 years. This left them without a suitable job in civil and no pension benefits. It is pertinent to keep Short Service Commissions short: in and out in five years, no further obligations on either side. The government should also consider assisting them for lateral entry into the civil services, the central armed police forces, or public sector undertakings by relaxing rules.

Rights and Entitlements of a Widow: There is a legal provision that any government employee who dies in service, one of the dependent family members is given a suitable job in the government department. This must apply to a soldier also and both the Central or state government must make laws like Rajasthan Government has made to provide compassionate employment to the dependents of soldiers who die in service.

Disability Pension Anomalies: The new disability pension rules for retired armed forces personnel introduced by the Union Ministry of Defence (MoD) on September 21, 2023 redefine pension and eligibility criteria for disability pension and replace all previous entitlements. These disability rules have come under severe criticism by veterans and needs detailed discussion with stakeholders as in new rules even the Officer trainees and cadets have been kept out of the list of eligible beneficiaries and there is disparity in disability due to similar reasons in civil and defence forces.

If fraternity of veterans who have remained disciplined all their lives, have resorted to agitation and protests to flag the pending issues and grievances related to serving and retired personal, then definitely it’s not a good sign and deserves government’s immediate attention. To keep armed forces fighting fit and ready for any eventuality in the highest state of morale, government will definitely take immediate steps to hear these grievances of a soldier and take progressive steps to look after their welfare.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Col Rajesh Bhukar The writer is Ex- Addl Director, Sainik Kalyan Vibhag, Jaipur [email protected]