•I’m appalled at what was done at Jantar-Mantar, once again.
•This also assures everyone that either, the PM has lost it totally Or he glibly accepts what his IAS & IPS tell him. Either way, a staunch BJP supporter, I now know that he has more tolerance for political buffoons in his party who get him votes through political tom-foolry and raising funds for the party by hook or crook than, for those who sign up for laying their lives for securing a Nation, in which some knaves can play their “Ruler or Sewak & king maker”, games in.
•Either way most charitably, I feel the PM, needs to reminded of some facts that seem to escape him due the filters that the bureaucracy seem to have built around him or other considerations have clouded his “Sarv Dharm, Sambhav” for the most basic of the Nation building ‘Dharms’ – Soldiering.
•Beyond the indignation of differential pay, perks, pensions and tragedy of ‘Police cum Municipal Action’ on a peaceful protest by ESM, a lot needs to be said, that unfortunately remains unsaid & needs to said, which is as follows:
1. Defence Services are the last tool in the hands of a Nation for everything, a tool that will never loose its sharpness and or despite, its sharpness being blunted due to neglect by the Nation in terms of morale, training, development & equipment, it will remain at the task allotted till they consume themselves, that is, die at it or complete the task allotted to the effect desired by the Nation; be it External Aggression, Internal Security, Riots, Floods, Pulling Kids Out of Wells & Holes, Search & Rescue Operations of all kinds, Natural & Man Made Calamities not just like Earthquakes & Tsunamis but also Nuclear, Chemical & Biological. Not to forget organising Pomp Pageantries & Ceremonies too.
2. It must also be understood that, all of the above problems plaguing India, are created by a non functional not accountable to anyone, Bureaucracy & a dis-interested self serving Legislature, who are both ungrateful to the soldiery.
3. The Defence Services, are the only bastion the Nation and the Parliament can turn to when all has failed or is failing. To be useful in such situations the Defence Services have to be kept prepared and the first and the most important aspect for that, is the Highest Morale Defence Services can muster at that time of reckoning and faith, that the Legislature representing the Nation , will respect their sacrifices which therefore will not be in vain.
4. An example in this case is the AFSPA, a constitutional and legal tool that the Nation has, for employing the Defence Services in such sudden catastrophic situations. However the use of this law has been necessitated since Independence more due to bureaucratic incompetence, apathy & bungling up in their jobs and its lethargy, than it has been for protection of our Nations borders. Classic cases are that of the Defence Services dealing with situations in Manipur, Nagaland, J&K or any other place where the Government in the Centre or the State failed to live up to the aspirations of the people and the Nation at large; the same Defence Services are & will be “Requisitioned” continuously by failed Civil Administrations in these locations.
5. The Morale & the pride in its Nation, of each member of the Defence Services, can only be disregarded at the greatest peril by a democratic Country, because in an end game it is these two values that will drive to perfection and desired effect, the weapon that a soldier is and all those weapons that the Central Governments have and will buy through clean or corrupted deals. However that seems to have been the last thing on the minds our polity be it the UPA & the BJP, when they used force on the ESM & their dependents, protesting for their promised and legitimate rights.
6. Both the Government & its Administration seem to be oblivious to the damage they have done to the Faith & Morale of the Soldiery by somehow comparing the Defence Services to the Central and State Police Organisations and the Administrative Services, treating the Defence Services as some riff-raff, that can be enlisted at will and trained to lay their lives down in any of the above mentioned situations! Well a catastrophe is only waiting can happen.
7. The images of Police & Municipal action against peaceful ESM with total apathy & deliberate lack of tact, will now remain stuck to the BJP & Narendra Modi’s persona & definitely his soul for ever, indelibly.
8. The very constituency that Narender Modi & BJP hoped to garner & were given on a platter, they have abused.
9. Did the Congress force it on the BJP by enlisting a faction of the ESM and raising a very emotive issue? May be, but the Delhi police and the Defence & Home Ministries of the present Government had the issue on their hands for some time now and have just proved to India the buffoons they are at settling things amicably, irrespective of their sloganeering about ‘The Emerging Super-Power’ internationally or ‘Make India Great Again’ at home.
10. Or worse? The Government just did not want to deal with the ESM amicably? Have they just told the Nation and also to the generations to come what to expect if and when they sign up to join the Defence Services?
11. If removing the Protesting ESM from Jantar-Mantar was an electioneering aesthetic issue, then they just lost a lot of support from this constituency, however small it may be.
Finally,
12. The images of soldiers crying tears of indignation, being pushed and having their clothes torn, by the Police of a land they went out to defend, will never wash away from my memory.
13. No amount of Pension or Pay or other facilities can redeem it. Now, even if granted the OROP, will be like an arrogant Government, disinterested in any Defence Services Morale boosting, throwing money at soldiers whom they treat as beggars.
14. No apology can undo that.
15. The message is clear, Narendra Modi, The BJP & The RSS are not sensitive to the people who lay down their lives for the Nation willingly otherwise they would have put in more effort to solve the issue amicably. They did not.
16. Whether Mr. Modi does good or bad for the Nation in future, pushing & hurting the pride of soldiers who went out into harms way to lay down their lives for the Nation IS JUST NOT DONE.
•Were the protesting ESM political aligned?
•May be, because political parties could not have left such a huge constituency, as the ESM are, unexploited.
•Many ESM not at the venue who may have been fence sitters, on the pan-India ESM demand & that every ESM definitely wants, have now been convinced by the makers of this decision & executioners of the actions against the ESM, that BJP is not for them.
•This horrible handling of the issue has for ever dented a very happy ESM / Defence Services – BJP relationship.
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Dear PM Sir,
•The only people happy and laughing at the turn of events, are those Anti-India Elements from across & within the borders of India or the corrupt in the IAS, the IPS and in your Ministries who will benefit from humiliating the very people who kept this Nation safe for you and your opposition, to Govern. Many of these laughing jokers will be by your side seeking ‘Shabashi” for these acts. You have now stuck another nail, that will count amongst other nails, that will ultimately seal the coffin of the BJP whenever that happens on the hastings next and in your legacies, in addition to others from the past which may be true of false, but this one has been chronicled and recorded by the coming generations as delibrate high handedness of the Government in power. The serving & retired senior Defence Services Officers with the BJP too will face the ignominy for all times to come.
•How the Intelligence agencies & Psychological & Media warfare agencies of the World will use these events is yet to be seen but they will try their best to exploit it, as Mr. Dovel can explain to you better than some minister or bureaucrat.
• Defence Forces and laying one’s life is all about passion & emotion. Those are the very weapons that win wars beyond the Crores worth of equipment bought through a better arms dealer with or without kickbacks.
•I wonder if it is the right time for you to show consideration and win over the ESM back from the UPA by just understanding and respect and not just by throwing money in parts, through a Jaitly or a Parikar or a Rajnath or a Nirmala?
•I am a very pained ESM, as many are and have felt a slap across our faces, irrespective of how glibly your spokespersons make it out to be as something that provoked it or distance yourself from it, while the Congress makes hay of it, either way the BJP asked for it.
•The hope you exuded before the elections and had us believe that you have a very astute and humble mind that is clearer than any in the Indian Political sphere today, has been dashed to the ground and sullied by some advisors who have misinformed you, forced your hand to do such an unholy act and are now laughing at you.
Sir, on your next trip abroad, look into the eyes of the soldiers of the Guards of Honour you receive across the World and tell them how you abused their kind of soldiers back at home when they turned old, even while uttering fancy platitudes in the media for them, in a backstabbing diabolic betrayal. Tell the Government heads across the Globe how you ruthlessly pushed aside all pleasantries, tact, diplomacy & ‘Sad-Bhav’ in dealing with those who sacrificed themselves for the Nation you inherited. Please do wonder at how those Governments across the World manage to keep the morale of their soldiers so high? At home please tell your mother how old ladies and families of the ESM were crying when the police turned on them asking for time till the 3rd of November that was granted to them by the very administration who acted against them.
• I still have total faith in you, that is why I insist that these small exercises be done by you, as they will put things in perspective for you and give you new insights into the actual matter that makes our Defence Services invincible to lay down their lives willingly – ‘Namak aur Naam’. Your goons hit both, once again.
• Every word above, has been written only to help you and provide sane sense and NOT to insult in any way, because I very firmly believe that you alone, being out of the “systemic bourgeois” that exploited us for 70 years, can give a new and correct direction to one of the largest Nation on Earth, towards its due greatness.
• However you too need help in the form of thoughts that are disruptive of that “70 Year Old Systemic Bourgeois”, which has built solid filters of multitude layers around the PMO, that can easily delusion the best, PM. It did so to Dr. Man-mohan Singh too, in different ways.
• Applying the same tact & diplomatic skills that you would employ to broker peace and trade with China, US & Russia, were required to be employed with the ESM at Jantar-Mantar more, than at any other place on the Planet and then not only go abroad again but to face the next elections and many beyond, with a strong constituency ready to die for you.
• You alone Sir, irrespective of actions by your ministries or your newly created “bourgeois”, will be blamed.
• It is Your reputation that will be dented by advisors who, like monkeys are wielding power, through a ‘talwaar’ they call, Modi.
• How will this fiasco, be explained in ‘Man Ki Baat’ and how many will buy in to your arguments, how so ever logical and passionate or accept your aggression?
• Count down to correct the situation has long started and has been ticking for long now .
Jai Hind.
UPDATES FROM OTHER VETERANS
UPDATE – 1 :
The Zeal with which Delhi Police launched a pre Dawn offensive against retired Military personal ,at 5 am on 30 Oct 2017 is unprecedented.
Normally don’t see a police guy at such uncomfortable hours, unless a pre planned and we’ll deliberated mission is on.
Their missionary Zeal to implement the NGT order is also infectious.
An order is an Order and our Police is trained ,fed and motivated to follow orders,all the way.
When Sri Sri Ravi Shankar defied every order including the NGT ,and went ahead with the mammoth congregation on the banks of Yamuna ,our Police chose not to implement the NGT orders and even contributed in the bandobast.
But when it came to attacking the Retired Military Personal ,they put all their tactics learnt in Police Academies, from the visiting guest speakers of the Military and snooped down like Spidermen from all directions .
Be it NCO,JCO, a General or Vear Nari ,the Police was dispassionate in their display of arrogance and power.
Generals being hackled by police inspectors, Veer Naris being manhandled and bundled into waiting trucks by the brave police women .
The same khaki force is so conspicuous by their absence, when the Courts order vacation of Government Bunglows and Buildings by Politicians and Bureaucrats in Lutyens Delhi.Never seen them in Spiderman act there.
When terrorists struck the Taj Hotel in Mumbai then the only redeeming force which effectively reacted at the scene of action, rescuing the hapless victims ,was the Army, NSG, Commandos and the Marcos.
Everyone conveniently forgot that it was not Army battle as Mumbai is not on the LOC and internal matters should he addressed by the civil forces.
Same for insurgency in J&K, The Army never failed the civil administration.
The spokes persons of BJP ,Shaina NC declared triumphantly that this is purely a routine matter of law and order magnitude which the police handled as per their procedures ,the government obviously has nothing to do in day to day matters of the police .
A very convincing argument indeed.
But that’s what spokes persons are there for.
Gaurav Bhatia which till very recently spoke his very best for the Samajwadi Party yesterday, was seen spewing venom against Ghanshyam Tiwari of the Samajwadi Party.
Now I know why lawyers do so well in politics,their sense of right and wrong is so strong that it guides them through all the dust and din.
Now the Jantar Mantar is no more a militarised zone, so no more fears from the retired, old and infirm soldiers who ask for nothing in their most peaceful protest for their rightful pay and allowances.
And of course, they do not create half the noise that these political parties create during their rallies.
Is the NGT listening.
UPDATE – 2 :
“A Tragedy in the Making”
IF Modi & his Party does not correct their attitudinal hang-up with regard to the AF’s ; as reflected in their latest “feather in the cap” – the high handed behaviour and manhandling of the veterans – at the behest of the GOI ; it is in the least , Shocking…& Shameful.
The treatment of a peaceful protest for grant of OROP , as approved by the Parliament and understood by soldiers – a retired General, widows & 70 yrs old & more , few war veteran’s – some having been decorated for gallantry more than once during war ; being dragged , pushed & shoved most arrogantly by policemen , without the presence of a single so called Class 1 Officer, packed into vehicles – a JCB in tow crashing into their tents & meagre belongings – a shame !! At Who’s behest ?
Have we ever seen the politicians, the Kanhaiya’s.. etc being treated thus, and these were Veteran’s , who have risked their lives in defence of the country, some Veer Naris who’s ‘Soldier’ husbands sacrificed their lives ; and others who bear their battle wounds & injuries. Certainly a ‘Black-Day’. in the history of our Armed Forces – the defenders of the Nation and the Country, as well .
The shocking & inexplicable silence of the electronic & print media – which otherwise keeps thumping its Chest … . “We are with you etc, lot’s of bombastic patriotic hog wash” seems a contradiction or, a gag order by the GOI. Perhaps the latter, as the video now being shown by ‘Republic TV’ ; as the police kept pushing their reporter ‘Khalid’, in an equally abnoxious manner, as well.
Even the damned stone – throwers and homegrown terrorists in the Valley are being protected by our Supreme Court ! Besides , the Government has time and again and infact two days ago , deputed a so called interlocutor to talk to ‘Separatists’ .. … Even , known murdering ‘terrorists’ have been released from jails to secure the release of Politicians kin & other hostages in the past ; like Mehbooba D/O Late Mufti & now CM of J&K !
The GOI didn’t think it proper to establish a dialogue even once with our ‘Veterans’ , who have been agitating peacefully for the past more than 2 yrs !! Despite numerous letters to the RM & others. The PM even thought it proper , not to even acknowledge a letter addressed to him by 16 Chief’s of the Army , Airforce & the Navy… Obviously based on advise , pray Who’s !? Shamefully , we have two ex – serviceman as MOS’s in this Govt !
The GOI’s action, smacks of lack of sincerity and genuine concern for our Soldier’s & Veteran’s , as well. If the Govt remains insensitive & continues to mollycoddle the ‘Babus’ & pander to their partisan advise rather than giving the veterans , the widows and the battle casualties their dues – NOT downgrade the Soldier’s sense of honour and pride.
The ill advised lowering of their cutting edge leadership’s status to Class 2 – that Sirs , would be the death knell of the AF’s battle winning ethos & elan ! As being projected , ‘Equivalence’ is a ‘Sham’ by the bureaucrats & if promulgated , it would be disastrous – is all , one can unequivocally state !!
The GOI then should look for leadership, to be drawn from amongst those, to whom – all politicians are in a race to proffer ‘Reservations’ – for ‘vote-banks’ irrespective of the quality of leadership – as already evidenced in the degenarated professional environment in every other field in the Country ; cause at this rate of downgrading & degradation of the AF’s ; the quality of leaders would become equally ‘third-rate’ commensurate to reserved categories, what – with 8 to 20% acceptable performance in entrance exams & SSB evaluation vis a vis the general cadre candidates . .. . .. . “A tragedy in travesty” !!!
The “National Good”, calls for a ‘Dharmic’ balanced thought & practice & NOT a race by a so called , Nationalistic party for ‘Power’ at all and
any costs !! – this could , in the future cost the Country its ‘Freedom’ and all that has been praiseworthy.
Ransher
31/10/18,
FF SM Basha: A very nice article written by Brig Ransher Singh Ranawat KC ,SC of Guards
INDEPENDENT OBSERVER 