OROP – diminutive in deeper malaise

ByLt Gen Prakash Katoch

30 Aug , 2014

http://www.indiandefencereview.com/news/orop-diminutive-in-deeper-malaise/0/

There is plenty hoopla about OROP and with reason – some angered, some amused, some complacent. Articles have appeared that veterans are disappointed and are losing faith in the government. Some write that since Uttrakhand had large number of military veterans, they chose to vote for opposition parties in assembly elections and that trend will likely continue. Reporters and cross section of the public ask what has happened that announcements about OROP by two successive governments have yielded nothing so far. So what exactly is happening?

…if an IAS officer becomes Joint Secretary in 17 years of service the officers of Organised Group A Service will start drawing the salary of Joint Secretary in maximum of 19 years of service and similarly that of Additional Secretary / Lt Gen in 30 and 32 years respectively

One thing is quite certain that the BJP by far has been the political party that favours the military the most. It is no secret that during the Kargil Conflict it was the BJP that raised the grant to the next of kin of a martyr from Rupees 2 Lakh to Rupees 20 Lakhs in one go. Had it been Congress in power, raising the grant by 20 paise would have perhaps taken 20 years. Therefore with the majority BLP government in power, observers are all the more puzzled what is happening about OROP. Government has announced they are committed to honour the commitment but that is what UPA II kept singing with Anthony leading the choir.

An analysis would tell you that OROP is drowning in a much deeper malaise, whose history runs back decades. It is on record that post Independence Nehru wanted to disband the army and on being asked how the country would be defended had responded that he had the police. Now why would Nehru have such view who otherwise was hailed as a statesman is puzzling unless he was following an agenda of his actual ancestry discounting the pseudonym Nehru adopted by his father. It is well known he had a disdain for the military and treated them no more than ‘necessary evil.

The second nut in the jigsaw came in the form of VK Krishna Menon, the worst Defence Minister India has had to-date. He not only kept the military, particularly army, starved of basic equipment but initiated the arms mafia in MoD by masterminding the infamous jeep scandal; short-circuiting the laid down procedure for imports and signing the deal in personal capacity while High Commissioner in London prior to taking up assignment of Defence Minister, imported jeeps at triple the actual price, procured less jeeps than number contracted and pocketed huge profits. Whether Nehru shared the booty is unknown but Nehru did not reprimand Krishan Menon for this blatant corruption. Both Nehru and Krishna Menon abhorred military advice and initiated violation of the institutional integrity of the military by thrusting Kaul an ASC officer as the commander of the vital Corps facing the Chinese in NEFA.

What happened thereafter is history but the fact remains that the nation and the military were ridiculed to put it mildly and Krishna Menon who should have been castrated for bringing such shame to the country was rewarded with a road named after him in the capital, replete with his statue that is garlanded annually on his birthday.

This language too was not changed in the ‘Rules of Business’ so that the top bureaucrat of MoD would become the mighty Skeletor while the Defence Minister could remain free for making money for the political party in power…

The above circus was keenly observed and analyzed by the bureaucracy in the MoD, and though sans any military sense, deduced that there was much profit in continuing with this arrangement. If they could continue to rule the roost (forget military issues) and make profits like the jeep scandal, what better situation? The involvement of the political hierarchy would make the polity hostage to the bureaucracy, latter knowing all secrets, which aside from money making would secure equally or more lucrative post retirement assignments. The only caution required was to keep the military at bay. Luckily, no one noticed that the ‘Rules of Business’ adopted from the British mentioned the Services Headquarters as “Attached Offices”. So not changing this gave the handle to not only keep the military away but also absolve MoD of whatever happened in the Services.

In British India, the Defence Secretary was charged with the defence of the country because their Defence Secretary was also the Defence Minister. This language too was not changed in the ‘Rules of Business’ so that the top bureaucrat of MoD would become the mighty Skeletor while the Defence Minister could remain free for making money for the political party in power, in synch with the arms mafia masterminded by the bureaucracy in tandem with other tentacles in PMO, DRDO-DPSUs-OF and abroad. Little wonder why our defence indigenization is so pathetic and despite the 1995 Dr Abdul Kalam headed Review Committee laying down the target of 70 percent indigenization by 2014, 19 years later we are still importing over 70 percent defence equipment – no inquiry for lapses, no blame apportioned, no heads rolled.

It was a beautiful blueprint that was readily accepted by Nehru and his lineage that followed (pseudonym Gandhi) – military kept away, arms mafia flourishing, money in billions of dollars. Whether the ‘actual’ ancestral lineage led the way to an anti-India agenda can be conjectured but then giving up 38,000 sq kms with “not a blade of grass”, gifting Fishtails to China, arbitrary imposition of Article 370 in J&K without reference to Home Minister Sardar Patel; perpetrators’ of rigging 1987 J&K elections that set in motion an insurgency to Pakistan’s advantage going scot free; inaction on subsequent ethnic cleansing in J&K rendering 3,50,000 Hindus refugees in their own country; deliberate enactment of the infamous IMDT Act in Assam and institutionalized illegal immigration from Bangladesh (made legal by providing Indian identity on crossing over to India) that changed the demography of not only the northeast but even the NCR, arming and training Bodos, criminalizing Punjab politics, move to vacate Siachen are events that can hardly be accredited to ambivalence.

But the most damaging part was the deliberate campaign launched to keep the military ‘subdued’ by not only keeping them underequipped but through hitting at their status, pay and allowances, and vilification. If all this sounds outlandish, then readers may wish to answer the following quiz:-

In which country would you find that the military is kept outside strategic decision making and continues without a national Security Strategy for 68 years? 

In which country would you find the MoD appealing and taking to court the War Widows and War Disabled denying them their emoluments and dragging them into prolonged legal battles, knowing full well some of them can’t even afford such litigation or would simply give up? 

In which country would you find a former Vice Chief of Army Staff who had lost a leg in actual battle as a young major fight a legal battle for years post retirement just to get his disability pension? 

In which country would you find a woman heading the Government’s Department of Ex-Service Welfare (DESW) reveling in denying emoluments of War Widows? Is she and ISI agent? 

In which country would you find the Government’s Department of Ex-Service Welfare crammed with bureaucrats without a single veteran posted to it. 

In which country would you find generalist bureaucrats sans professional military knowledge ruling the roost in MoD for years? 

In which country would you have a swollen headed woman in MoD who says no officer lower than Brigadier rank should ring her up? 

In which country would you find that the military is kept outside strategic decision making and continues without a national Security Strategy for 68 years? 

In which country would you find Services Headquarters made “Attached Offices” other than a colony of a foreign power? 

In which country would you find military personnel deliberately lowered in order of precedence year after year? 

In which country would you find the pay and allowances of the military being brought lower than sister government services? 

In which country would you have a DRDO directly under MoD but doesn’t bother to take MoD sanction for most projects wasting crores of rupees? 

In which country would you find that despite consistent demands, the military is deliberately not represented in the various Pay Commissions? 

In which country would you find military veterans fasting in the country’s capital and returning their medals and gallantry awards in disgust? 

In which country would you find that when military veterans go to the President to return their medals with petitions written in blood, the so called Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces (appointed by the political party in power) can’t muster courage to meet them? 

In which country would you find a RRM peeking out of his cocoon to say “it is unbecoming of veterans to protest” and hide his face without meeting the veterans or finding out what their grievances are? 

In which country would you find the MoD refusing to implement directions of the Supreme Court of the country with regard to pay and allowances of military personnel? 

In which country would you find a former Defence Secretary and his cronies summoned in Contempt of Court by the Supreme Court of the country for not honouring its directions with respect to pay and allowances of military personnel? 

In which country would you find that despite scores of defence scams, no bureaucrat has ever been questioned, leave aside being convicted? Wasn’t Krishan Kant the Defence Secretary during the Eurocopter and Westland Helicopter scam? Wasn’t Arvind Joshi the JS (G) and JS (Air) during the Hawk trainer deal? Didn’t Haschke’s diary lists out the appointments bribed in MoD but lid has been put on the case? 

In which country would you have a DRDO directly under MoD but doesn’t bother to take MoD sanction for most projects wasting crores of rupees? 

In which country would you a find a two cent journalist (one amongst the group branded “intellectual prostitutes” by John Swinston of New York Times) briefed to publish a false story of an attempted military coup? 

In which country would you find a two cent journalist falsely headlining an attempted military coup in his paper, prostituting for a particular political party, going scot free and feeling safe because he bumchums someone in the arms mafia hierarchy lodged in a foreign capital? 

In which country would you find the MoD refusing to implement directions of the Supreme Court of the country with regard to pay and allowances of military personnel? 

In which country would you find the PMO funding a newspaper to write a series of trashy articles against a serving Service Chief whose case is sub judice in Supreme Court? 

In which country would you find the principal secretary to the PM disclosing privately he heard the PM telling his friends he had promised his wife that so and so will be made the Chief? 

In which country would you find a Defence Minister like Anthony who tells his staff to announce OROP sanctioned (all newspapers and TV channels said so very next morning) and simultaneously directs that nothing should actually be given, not knowing one of his subordinates will brag about it to a veteran Brigadier on the golf course? 

In which country would you find veteran delegations meeting the Defence Minister post the OROP announcement being told for months that committee (s) had been formed to look into the issue? 

In which country would you find a pre-budget announcement by a minister (whose son is reportedly hand in glove with the arms mafia) that Rs 500 crores have been sanctioned for OROP and Anthony (by far the second worst Defence Minister after Krishna Menon) thumps the table grinning he fooled the veterans again? 

But before we get down to more about the future of OROP here is the finale quiz question for the military fraternity, both serving and veterans. You well know your Services Headquarters are in the ‘also ran’ category being “Attached Offices” but friends what exactly is your status? One wonders whether even the political hierarchy has any clarity about this. But the bureaucrat has played another master stroke. Vide the 6th Central Pay Commission (CPC), the military is the only service that has been deliberately left out from grant of Non Functional Upgradation (NFU). MES Civilian officers, GREF Civilian Officers, Officers of BSF, CRPF, ITBP, Def Accounts (IDAS), Test Audit (IA&AS), Ordnance Factory Board all are now getting salary and grade pay of Joint Secretary/ Maj Gen (GP Rs 10000/-) in 19 yrs of service, and will draw the pay of Additional Secretary to Govt. of India which is equal to a Lt Gen (GP Rs 12000/-) in 32 yrs of service by virtue of their service being Organised Group A Service.

The military has been left out on the semantics that military is not Organised Group A Service. So folks ask yourself are you / have you been serving in a ‘Disorganized Service”? Organised Group A Services mainly include AIS (All India Services, namely, IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service) and Org Gp A service. There are a total of 58 services forming part of Organised Group BUT Defence Officers are a separate category (Class 1).

The final solution to the above malaise appears to be only one – akin to the Planning Commission, demolish the MoD completely replacing it with a Department of Defence (DoD) manned by military specialists directly under the Prime Minister.

Why Class 1 officers of defence services are not at par with the Organised Group A is a mystery that the bureaucracy will take you around in circles before you can resolve it. The bottom-line is that undoing this masterstroke of the bureaucracy will take decades and this is the precise reason why military representation in CPC is shunned. . Example of what this ruling implies is that whenever an IAS officer of the state or joint cadre is posted at the Centre to a particular grade carrying a Specific Grade Pay in Pay Bands PB-3 or PB-4, the officers belonging to batches of Organised Group A services that are senior by two years or more and have not been promoted so far to that particular grade would be granted the same grade on a non functional basis from the date of posting of the IAS officers in that grade at the centre – if an IAS officer becomes Joint Secretary in 17 years of service the officers of Organised Group A Service will start drawing the salary of Joint Secretary in maximum of 19 years of service and similarly that of Additional Secretary / Lt Gen in 30 and 32 years respectively. But why is the military left out when the maximum stagnation is in the military as compared to other services and leaving just the military out is already creating functional problems where military officers work together with other officers of Organised Group A Service? This is a tangle that the government needs to address early.

But getting back to OROP, what is the current status. Frankly only the government would know. However, guesswork could be on following lines: MoD bureaucrats led the Defence Minister to believe that Rs 1000 crores is enough, which it is not. So now they are ‘working out’ what actually is needed – usual exercise for delays hoping some more veterans die off in ensuing months? Going by media reports, the second ambiguity apparently created is that of “interpreting” what OROP implies. This is another ploy of the bureaucrats.

OROP simply implies that a veteran who retired pre 2006 gets the same pension of equivalent rank retiree of 2006 and after. Considering the machinations of the bureaucracy, government would do well to take the following steps: one, immediately withdraw all appeals against emoluments of War Widows and War Disabled and make a public announcement to the effect; two, make an interim statement on OROP giving date from which it will start reaching, even if it is six months or one year from now; three, remove ambiguity of interpretation of OROP and make an announcement to the effect; four, resolve issue NFU for military without waiting for the 7th CPC; five, ensure military representation in 7th CPC; six, initiate legal action against the journalist who with malafide intentions falsely published news of a military coup.

The final solution to the above malaise appears to be only one – akin to the Planning Commission, demolish the MoD completely replacing it with a Department of Defence (DoD) manned by military specialists directly under the Prime Minister. Government would do well to consider this seriously if the defence of India is to be resurrected efficiently. The DRDO-DPSUs-OF too need to be injected with users (military) at all levels including at managing and decision making levels. Without such measures, vital reorganization of the defence-industrial complex will remain incomplete and indigenization of defence will not be adequately streamlined.