| Courtesy Times Of India |
Dear Mr Chetan Bhagat,
Every morning when
I turn the pages of the newspaper, I expect to be enlightened and informed by grey matter way above on the ladder, of those
who wield the pen. And this bright
sultry Sunday, as I turned the pages, TOI column Underage Optimist’s headlines screaming of OROP grabbed my
attention. Being a fauji wife, but naturally you had my attention for those full five minutes till I finished
reading it. That’s how long it took. Then I went back to it again. And again. Just to understand and
swallow the fact that a national daily that boasts of being the best in terms
of number of copies being circulated, actually published your opinion on a matter
over which you have no expertise whatsoever.
On that matter, we
are at the same level. I mean, the matter of subject knowledge. So, could I just
deconstruct your column so as to understand the informed pearls of wisdom spewing from the black print.If I had been a teacher or even a customer service trainer,
you would have scored a perfect CGPA 10 for beginning on a positive note with melodrama
laced at the edges. You have talked of sacrifice and how the Defence is the
only sector that is shown in a positive light by our beloved Bollywood. And I
shall come to this later, I promise.
1. How is OROP a misnomer? That the veterans are
fighting for one pension for the respective ranks irrespective of the year of retirement,
has never been under the cloak. Or is it that you realized the core issue when
you decided to write this article? When you say that the general
perception on the issue is driven by sentiments
such as, “ They guard our borders so they must get it”, are you trying to
throw alms into a begging bowl?
No one is holding a bowl here, Mr Bhagat.
The veterans are only asking to revert to a practice that was already in place.
Why and how this practice ceased, maybe you could research a bit (for a change)
and enlighten us on it in your next column.
2. You claim “ …After
all those who protect our borders must be treated well. OROP was seen as
something that meant soldiers were treated well. Hence, you better give
OROP, and now!”
( Did you seriously conjure up this
sentence!)
This agitation did not happen one fine
day when the veterans decided to sit for
a picnic at Jantar Mantar during the oppressively sultry days. It was borne out
of false promises and hopes raised over the last forty years ever since this
bone of contention has been represented
in various capacities. The picture that you see today is that of
frustration raising its head.
3. “ People who wanted to do an objective
analysis had to scurry and hide in a corner….”
No, they did not have to, Chetan Bhagat!
Objective analysis has always been welcomed by the Forces. But armed with facts
and figures and no skeletons hiding in the cupboard. There should be no space
for objective analysis without all the facts on the table. How else do you
think wars are fought? Or strategies formulated in the war games ? It is objective
analysis. They think with their heads and not with the hearts. However, these
very forces when they are called upon for humanitarian missions perform
extremely well. They think with their head and the heart, Mr Bhagat.
4. Do you think it worries the Forces personnel
whether the status “ Army good,
politician bad” will be maintained after this? That soldier at the border will
continue to trudge cross country at more than 10000 feet in Arunachal Pradesh
and sleep in the open so he can set up a post for your security; or stand at 23000 feet surrounded by snowfields in Siachen and come down with medical issues that
would be a reminder of the tenure for his entire lifetime (for your information
Mt Everest is at 29000feet) ; or sit
inside an armoured tank without an AC when the outside temperature is above
fifty degrees Celsius. Was that the AC humming when you wrote this article?
5. “ …we have
OROP for defence why not for our paramilitary and police?”
You have been a bad boy, Mr Bhagat! I will
tell your mamma that you don’t do your
homework well. The OROP issue has its basis on the retirement age of defence
personnel. The paramilitary and police
personnel retire at the age of 57 to 60 years while a soldier’s retirement age
is 35 years.
6.
And since you have defaulted on research, how
about telling the world through your column that exactly how the defence
pension of Rs 60000 crores per year gets
divided between the actual defence personnel and the civilian defence
officials. Please add to it that how the Rs 12000 crores that you tout the
exchequer will be burdened with every year will actually be mitigated in five years
time. The latter figure, by the way, is a backlog of the payment due for
non-implementation of OROP for the last so many years.
7. “ These funds
are given out with no output obtained in return?“, “ …to pay the officers more
or the jawans more?”, “ …more money be spent on veterans or more hospitals for
veterans? “
There speaks a true investment banker! Looking for the best horse to bet on.
Thank you, but the soldier had already put aside a part of his money into the ECHS
scheme (Ex Servicemen Health Scheme) at the time of retirement so he could do
the rounds of Military Hospital in his old age. The doubts you think aloud are
best kept under wraps till you understand the whole system and the
complex web woven for years.”…many
sectors don’t even have pensions” -
Where do you live Mr Chetan Bhagat? We are talking of Government
services here. Incidentally, many of these services also have a Provident Fund scheme where the
organization also contributes to the
employees fund. On the other hand, a
soldier maintains a EPF/DSOP where he is the sole contributor.
Like I promised in the beginning, Mr Chetan Bhagat, I shall come back to your opening lines. The defence
fraternity humbly accepts and is grateful to Bollywood for showing us in such glowing light, receiving the hoots and
whistles in a dark hall and making money out of it. Taking note of your
condescending tone ( for I did get a stink of it), when a soldier dies he oozes
blood and not ketchup. Do you send out a
prayer when there is a cas evac ( casualty evacuation) so the injured soldiers
are flown to the nearest MH in time for
medical attention? Do you fight snow storms to reach out to the
grievously injured in the glacier so his life can be saved? Do you fly choppers
at altitudes where they were never meant
to be flown? However these machines are employed beyond their stated limits
because there is no other way and there is no other battlefield higher than the Siachen glacier. Do you stand
by the widows when these choppers crash? Have you seen a burning bus load of bloodied soldiers rushed back to the MH
while they were on their way home for Diwali holidays after a year? Be a part of
this and then adopt a tone for your article.
And
next time I shall hope to read an informed article in your column about the
three hundred percent hike that our
esteemed members of the parliament have gifted themselves with, as also a hundred percent hike in the
pipeline this year.
