Thursday 30 June 2016


UTTER DISAPPOINTMENT 
OF THE ARMED FORCES 
AT  THE APPROVED 7th CPC RECOMMENDATIONS 


Status of Armed Forces is 'Jaise Theye'

The levels of both IPS & Forest service raised to that of IAS & IFS.

CAPFs' level raised to Defence Services, but unlike the latter, their retirement age of all ranks raised to 60 yrs.

OROP already extended to CAPFs', now extended to civilians too, even though they also serve till 60 yrs.

IAS, IPS, IFS & IFoS will have edge over other services through 3 extra increments and NFU.

NFU for HAGs of Defence Services retained. 

Armed Forces have been retained in grade B, as opposed to all other Central Services.

Tradition of lowering Armed Forces Level with every CPC has been retained. 



the RM, Manohar Parrikar admits that “some” of the recommendations that he had strongly pushed on behalf of the armed forces have “not” been accepted, We are still awaiting finer details to come out but on the look of it there are “not bright spots”. Pray tell us O! dear RM Sir, pray tell us your definition of "Some".

GoI has once again up multiple committees to look into anomalies arising out of implementation of the Report of 7th CPC. "Panel pe Panel, Committee pe Committee My Lord", when will we get justice, My Lord ?


The demand for uniform pay matrix has been rejected and the allowances have not been brought at par with civilian employees.

Non implementation of common pay matrix means that Defence Pay Matrix will be restricted to 24 pay levels, while the pay levels of bureaucrats is 40.

Another issue of concern is the non-implementation of Non Functional Upgradation (NFU) which would have allowed Armed Forces personnel, like their civilian counterparts, to get upper grade of salary even when not promoted .

One of the main grudges that the Armed Forces have, is with regard to risk-hardship matrix. A soldier posted at Siachen Glacier, which has the highest degree of both risk and hardship, gets a meagre allowance of Rs 31,500 per month, compared to the civilian bureaucrats from the All India Services, who draw 30 per cent of their respective salaries as “hardship allowance”, when posted anywhere outside their comfort zone.


Former Chief of Army Staff, General Roy Chowdhury has lashed out at the Panel of Secretaries for failing to do justice to the Defence personnels. 

The Uniform Pay Matrix has not been taken into account. 

The ‘Allowances’ have not been brought at par with civilian employees. 

The much-awaited demand of parity in disability allowance has also been ignored.

The various anomalies in fixation of pay and pensions has created a discontent within the armed forces and ex-servicemen. 

By not implementing the Uniform Pay Matrix, government has allowed the Defence Pay Matric to be restricted to 24 pay levels, whereas, the bureaucratic pay level is 40. This not only stagnates the salary hike after 31 years of service, but also decreases the pension amount by at least Rs 20,000 as compared to civilian employees.

Similarly, the parity in allowances between uniformed forces and civilian employees was a long pending demand. A CAPF DIG posted at Leh gets Rs 57,000 in form of allowances. But a brigadier gets only Rs 17,000. The disability pension for Additional Secretary is Rs 60,000, but for a Lt General, it is only Rs 27,000.

The RM has tried to play down the discontentment through his usual falsehood. His comment, "We had pushed forward their demands with full force. Some of them have been accepted. Some haven’t been taken. The Finance Ministry will look into it,” 

Dear Mr Parrikar, you have used the word 'some' twice in your above sentence. Could you please quantify each of them?

The Munshi is also upto his usual tricks. He blandly falsifies, "The Govt has given a historic raise in salaries". 

Pray tell us Munshiji, if 23.5% is historic, then what was the over 40% raise given by the previous Govt?

Sunday 26 June 2016

DISCONTENT IN THE DEFENCE FORCES 
 DUE TO DEVIATIONS IN 
THE EMPOWERED PANEL'S REPORT 
ON THE 7th CPC RECOMMENDATIONS

Despite Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s repeated assurances, sources say that the empowered Panel have failed to fully address the anomalies and deviations in the recommendations of the 7th CPC. The three Service Chiefs also failed to adequately react timely to the omission by bringing the issue to the notice of the Prime Minister’s for his intervention.
After the Seventh Pay Commission made the recommendations on non-functional upgrade (NFU), NFU pay fixation, military service pay and the common pay matrix for the civil and military services, the three service chiefs made detailed presentations on the discrepancies on four occasions.
Mr. Parrikar had responded positively to most of the concerns. On NFU, the Defence Ministry recommended that it be given to all, including the Armed Forces, or no one. It was agreed that a note will be sent to the empowered committee.
Despite the above reports say that there are deviations in the recommendations of the empowered committee from the Ministry’s recommendations. Like for OROP, the three Services, had banked on Mr. Parrikar’s assurances. They were disappointed before and are once again dismayed.
The three Services seem to have become aware of the deviations recently, but the three Service Chiefs have failed to date, to take up the issue with the Prime Minister.
NFU essentially allows officers who are not promoted to draw the salary of higher ranks or pay grades, as their batch mates are promoted. The Sixth Pay Commission had granted NFU to most Group ‘A’ officers but not to the officers of the Armed Forces. So, whereas the IAS granted itself the NFU a long time back. the Armed Forces rotting in Group 'B', have had their old demand for NFU denied all these years.
The financial benefit from NFU is minor; it is more a question of status. Defence officers working in a multi-cadre environment have been lowered in rank with respect to the civil government staff.
For instance, an IPS officer posted as Deputy Inspector-General in the Border Security Force, (Protocol-wise, equivalent to a Brigadier), draws the same grade pay of Rs. 10,000 as his divisional commander who is a Major General of the Army and therefore, refuses to obey the divisional commander.
This also brings the issue of NFU pay fixation which has been decided by the Seventh Pay Commission as 2.5 times from the Sixth Pay Commission. This will further increase the existing difference. The Seventh Pay Commission has also done away with the common pay matrix and adopted a separate one for the Services.
The military service pay is an allowance paid to the military personal up to the rank of brigadier and equivalent. The Seventh Pay Commission denied it to Major-General and above. This means a Major-General after a year in that rank draws Rs. 8,500 less than a fellow coursemate who is a brigadier, one rank lower. This is because the two ranks are in the same pay grade but a brigadier gets the military service pay of Rs. 9,000, which stops once promoted. 

Tuesday 21 June 2016

THE SIGNS OF TIMES 
NEW ETHOS OF A NEW INDIA

How many of us have experienced the high of successfully passing off a lie? No please, do not twist your nose and raise your eye brows. Just ponder a moment before you answer.

I am a poor liar and yet as far as I remember, during almost all of my fair number of years, I have, at least once a year, planned and plotted for days to  experience the High. The kick and the vicarious pleasure that I got when I could successfully pull it off!!!

You still cannot recollect yours? Well, let me help you. Never heard of the April Fools' Day ? Yes, that's the Day, the one day out 365 days that many of us try our best to experience that kick and the pleasure of successfully pulling-off a fast one. Of course, we always owned up to the lie, immediately experiencing the High.

It is said that a young George Washington, once confessed to cutting down a cherry tree by expressing his inability to tell a lie, but history holds testimony that for many, since ages, lies & deceit held the key to the all too heady cocktail of money, fame, revenge and power, resulting in elaborate hoaxes, perjuries and forgeries, that have had enormously adverse ripple effects on the society and the Nation.

Well, in the India of today, many have turned each passing year to 365 April Fools' days. Do we believe in the addict, "Those who live by a lie, die by a lie"? Lies are more deadly than the sword, for it kills softly, just like the Carbon mono Oxide, without the victim realising that she/he was dieing.

All of us know how a mere Gefreiter came to be revered as the Fuhrer who, with the help of a monstrous propaganda machine, mesmerised the Nation to believe in falsehoods. Among many in History, he takes the cake, but not much behind are a number of other escapists, who were able to fool some for some time, but long enough to achieve their nefarious short term goals.

Homer's Iliad describes how the Trojans, even after defeating the Greeks repeatedly, were finally massacred and comprehensively defeated by just a few hundred heavily armed Greek soldiers, hidden inside a harmless looking huge wooden horse, slily wheeled in to the heart of the heavily guarded Trojan city of Troy. To the Greeks, the end, (Rescue of Helen, the kidnapped Queen of Sparta), justified the means and yet the world has come to equate the phrase, 'Trojan Horse' to deceit from within, to be watchful about.

There are many other examples in History :

Students of Military and Political history will remember the 'Dreyfus Affair' of France in the final years of the 19th century. Titus Oates, with the help of a conniving Major Hubert Joseph Henry, cooked up a sinister plot to drum up hatred for the Jews, with the help of fraudulent documents, accusing Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer of the French Army, of being anti National by selling military secrets to the Germans. The officer was imprisoned, but a large number of French, including the famed novelist Emily Zola, stood up in support and after a long struggle of 10 years, a civil court declared Alfred Dreyfus innocent. Reinstated in the Army, he later fought  with distinction in the WW I. 

Van Meegeren who made a fortune producing fakes of the celebrated artist Vermeer, comically got caught in his own lies. He did not live to enjoy his ill-gotten wealth, dieing within a few months after being imprisoned by the Nazis. 

The polity of today's India not only has a Nazi admirer and follower at the top, it is teeming with  Trojan Horses, Oateses and Meegerens. The success formula is to first quietly spread a lie and then grab the opportunity to spread canard at the National level, against political opponents. Every day a new lie is spread which is later proved to be what it is, a lie, but by then the damage is already done. Who cares about the truth. It is the end that matters. The aim is achieved.

While an erstwhile veteran Congressman of UP, was recently trying to prove his loyalty to his changed masters by manufacturing truth at Kairana village, the top most leadership of the Nazi-type party and its Govt, was quick to pick up the threads and paint a desolate picture before the Nation, of the persecution sufferred by the majority community at the hands of the minorities, under the benign gaze of the anti Hindu State Govt. Does not matter if just few days later, the author of the lie, under the relentless scrutiny of a small section of the media, had to eat his own printed list and typically disown its authorship, blaming it on his juniors. The top leadership, who insidiously perpetuated the lie, are, however, yet to apologise to the Nation. Who cares, so long as the nefarious goals are achieved!

Day in and day out, false claims are made about achievements of the Govt, both Nationally and Internationally, with the help of the Parivar, within and outside with the aid of a section of the Diaspora abroad. The opposition is too fragmented and weak to put up a fight. Every effort is made to further fragment it, with the help of lies, lies and more lies, propogated with active help a major section of the prestitute media. 

Not just the opposition, every effort is being made to divide our great Nation on sectarian, religious and economic lines. Dalits Trojans are launched against Dalits, Muslim Vibhishans against Muslims and pliant economic powerhouses are being created to do the ruler's biddings.

During their days in the Opposition, the present Party in power, planned and plotted to defeat the giant. They opposed every reform bill by every means, fair and foul and then justified its methods most blatantly by declaring it as a legitimate weapon of the Opposition. Later, on coming to power, with the mirage of development, an unfairly discredited opposition and a master orator, when the opposition tried to emulate them, the erstwhile opposition went to town with band, baja and barat and declared the opposition to be Anti-National, their Brahmastra.

Yes, the repeated charge of anti-Nationalism is the flair of the season. 

You criticize the Govt in power, its members or its policies, you are an anti-National. 

You may say 'Jai Hind' or 'Hindustan Zindabad', but if you don't say, 'Bharat Mata ki Jai', you are an anti-National. What will the soldier do with his mandir, masjid and girja all side by side and addressing each other, from the top most General to the lowly sepoy, with 'Jai Hind'?

If the anti-National tag fails to stick, an all out attack is launched to prosecute the individual(s) with the help of a subserviently conniving police force. The all out personal attack on the top opposition leadership, be they of any party, by embroiling them in imaginarily cooked up cases, filed by nondescript members of the party in power. Whereas the charges against members of their own party are prevaricated upon, FIRs are filed posthaste on the cooked up charges against the opposition leaders.

With three of its own Chief Ministers and a number of top Central and State leaders and Ministers under cloud of corruption, (Even for diverting PDF rice meant for the BPL families), the Govt in Power and its leaders are out to paint their rivals with brush of corruption.

In certain cases, the orders of the Judiciary too leaves one in wonderment, like the latest judgment in the Gulbarga Massacre case, where the Court declared that the murdered victim, an opposition MP, brought it on himself by opening fire on the mob. Hello! Were the marauding thousands, there to enquire the welfare of the victim? They were attacking to kill him and burn down his house, just as they did in a number of other cases. What does a single man do in such a case? Stand still like a 'Bali Ka Bakra'? It was a desperate bid of Ahsan Jafri to save his own life and that of his family. The Judge, however, declared that the latter provoked the (Peaceful!) crowd .

The revered Gaumata is taken to the village/subarban weekly market for finding a suitable mate and then, in full view of hundreds of amused viewers, a stud bull is let go on her in the name of mating; the spectacle is enacted over at least a hundred meters. It is a scene this author has seen many a time since his childhood.

Once her usefulness is over, the same revered Gaumata is abandoned on the streets,  even urban ones, unfed, uncared, becoming a traffic nuisance. She is allowed to die by choking on all the plastic swallowed from the garbage bins, but you cannot kill her to alleviate her sufferings in her sunset years.

I have asked this question before and I ask it again, "What was the destination of the old cows that Vajashravasa of the Kathopanishad used to annually give away for free? 

Notwithstanding the above, beware, if you dare raise a finger against the revered Gaumata, you will be declared an anti-National. 

How many times of late are we seeing incidents at the grass roots, where lies are first spread and then in a preplanned manner attack is launched on a predetermined target, to either kill or maim, reputationally and at times physically!  

How many times have we witnessed the man at the top pretending to be selectively deaf and dumb, while his minions go around attacking the vary ethos and ethics of India, we have valued since time immemorial. These real anti Nationals are later rewarded with plum posts and at times even felicitated publicly.

Fear of intolerance has been deliberately spread through a few dastardly acts, which have never seen the light of the law of the land. The fear is palpable. Brother and sisters are turning against each other; friends are revelling in a new role as enemies; colleagues are turning against colleagues; The D-Company methods have been refined; first a seemingly well meaning friendly 'advice', followed by a threat or two and finally the coup d'tat. 'Khallas'. Chanakyas theory of 'Saam, Daam & Dand' being applied in letter and spirit. 

The word RSS is now a prized badge on expanding chests. Just a couple of days back, a govt MoS, boldly declared to the Nation, "We will saffronize education as required". Supposedly, the last General Elections were won with a massive majority on the plank of 'Saffronisation'! Was it!

I come back to the Gefreiter, who ruled his great and powerful Nation with elan. What was behind it? All those who have read Mein Kampf, will agree that its abiding message is of aggressive ultra Nationalism. He fired the imagination of the German's of all ages with his aggressive rhetoric. There was the all pervading iron hand of the Gestapo. All but a handful, admired the ethnic cleansing, much admired by the acknowledged Guruji of the Parivar. With most of the Nation behind him, The Fuhrer brooked no dissent. Marshals and Generals bowed to him and some even became sycophants.  

The Fuhrer espoused the supremacy of the Aryan Race. Barring the ethnics in the Southerns parts of the Country, the land of Bharat is the land of the Aryans. The HM of our Country, however, says that Aryans did not come from outside. May be once upon a time Germany and Bharat were joined at the hips. May be Tilak got it all wrong. Actually there was a reverse migration, i.e., Aryans migrated from Baharat to Germany. Be as it may, there is a conviction that we share a race. Why not then share History too; the past of one running into the present of the other?

The Signs of the Times : 

An aggressively ultra Nationalistic Hindu Rashtra in 

the making, in the image of the aggressively ultra 

Nationalistic Nazi Germany. The Fuhrer led his great

Nation to its ultimate destruction. The Nation, 

however, rose like a giant from its ashes to tower in 

the economic World. May be we too will, similarly 

rise from our ashes, which seem scattered on the 

near horizon.















Sunday 5 June 2016

QUID PRO QUO :
THE CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG

Who is Salvatore Girone?

The Italian sounding name immediately harks our memory back to the case of the two Italian marines accused of cold blooded murder of two innocent Indian fishermen, the only bread winners in their respective families.

One of the two sergeants was earlier released on compassionate medical grounds on the undertaking of the Govt of Italy, for the sergeant to be returned immediately after necessary medical attention was completed. It would not have required an Einstein to predict that he would never return. He did not.

The second sergeant was purportedly kept under arrest, (Out on conditional bail), in India, in subpar conditions, but was he? The man was enjoying the sumptuous hospitality of the Italian Ambassador to India as a resident in his home in Chankyapuri. 

In the mean while, the Italian Govt kept demanding his return to Italy, on humanitarian grounds, supposedly since as per them, the home of their Ambassador to India was not comfortable enough for the murderer out on bail.

The first egg on the face of the so called mighty Indian Govt, came when the ITLOS, (International Tribunal of Laws of the Seas), ruled against India in a case filed by the Govt of Italy, despite the dissenting opinion of the ITLOS vice-president, Judge B. Bouguetaia that there is not “the slightest connection between the case and the Law of the Sea Convention". In the deliberate absence of a vigorous defence of India's position, the Indian permanent member of the Tribunal, Justice P Chandrasekhar Rao, was reduced to an inconsequential and puerile act of signing a dissenting footnote. 

The second time, once again most deliberately, India had egg all over its face was when in April, '16, the International Arbitral tribunal ruled that the marine sergeant, already out on bail and living with the Italian Ambassador to India, should be returned to Italy. This time round the Indian permanent member of the Tribunal did not even bother affixing a footnote. He just acquiesced. 

What was the purpose of this conspiratorial charade ? QUID PRO QUO!!!
Both the Italian and the Indian Govts wanted a piece of something. Matteo Renzi wanted his marine back and Chappan Chaati wanted a tar brush to splash on the faces of the Congress and its first family. Both got what they wanted. The Italians delivered on their promise with perfect preplanned timing. It was now the turn of the Indians to deliver, which they did, clothed in constitutional niceties. Remember! the Apex Court justices had recently been given a lecture on how they must cooperate with the Govt in matters of National security? My heart goes out to the poor justices, caught as they are, between the shilla and the cheribedies. Soon, it was all quits all quits. Ever played the game of marbles, 'Bhool Chook, Leni-deni'?

When was the mutually beneficial arrangement worked out. While we continue to bicker, the law of probability says, it must have been on the sidelines of the NY meet, which both attended. The prestitute media, supposedly one of the most important pillar of our democracy,  which more often than not can go to logic defying discoveries, stayed mum. Even the Congress, afflicted with terminal decease, not even whimpered. 

My dear Sisters, Brother and Friends of Bharat, like it or not, this then is the latest model of Indian Democracy.

For details of what transpired at the two Tribunals, I recommend the following two links :

http://thewire.in/2016/05/04/the-international-tribunals-ruling-on-the-italian-marines-is-a-setback-for-india-and-justice-33708/

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/un-arbitration-court-rules-india-should-release-italian-marines-2780802/