ARISE ! RECOGNISE THE THREAT

TO OUR BHARAT 

AND YES, 

#PO MONE CHAPPAN CHAATI

Not just from 'God's own country', but  from the polity of the land of our forefathers, fondly called, 'Bharat'. His slip is showing in full view of the Nation!!! 

This call, (Arise!), is addressed to all my dear friends who, in the run-up to the Parliamentary elections of 2014, told me to shut up and also to crores of our citizens who fell backwards to sing paeans for Chappan Chaati, giving him an unprecedented majority in the Lok Sabha. 

I told then, have said a number of times since then, and will say it again, ad nauseam : this man and his Parivar are a danger to the idea of Bharat that has been built over thousands of years and now enshrined in the Constitution of our Country by the founding fathers of independent India.

The deceit that they practise will win hands down, if there was a contest.

They sided with the British and now pose as the champions of democracy.

They murdered the Father of the Nation and now try to capitalise on his name. 

They fought the idea of secular Bharat with its first Home Minister, who ultimately banned them and now glorify the same man for electoral gains.

While ostentatiously swearing by the secular core of our constitution, every day they do everything in their power to destroy it, with the blessings of the very top, the Parivar.

A diabolic arrangement has been worked out by the wolves in sheep's garb. Chappan Chaati will keep tweeting, "Strength of India is in its diversity", but his loudmouthed and vicious minions will, aggressively and unabashedly, pursue the agenda of a Hindu Rashtra, be it the education system or depriving the poor of their staple food, while branding all dissenters as anti-national, asking them to go to Pakistan. Follow us or else .... 

It made no difference whether the dissenters were renowned scientists, (Including a Bharat Ratna), academicians, artists, historians or thinkers. Command from the top : branded them all as anti-nationals. That has, of late, become the 'Brahmashtra' of the Parivar.

Bash up and/or kill men in broad daylight in full view of a whole lot of people, on trumped up hysteria, just for the fear effect. Their communities did not matter. Even the parent of a serving soldier was not spared and murdered brutally in his own house, in full view of the entire village. No one has yet been punished.

A man who tweets at the drop of a hat, keeps mum when his goons go sinister and wild and later fetes and rewards them, a few with ministries!

Boasts, boasts and more boasts; nothing but empty boasts; and rhetoric :

To the soldiers : "Within 100 days of my coming to power, I will give you everything that the UPA deprived you of."

To the entire Nation : "Within 90 days of coming to power, I will bring back all the black money stashed abroad by the corrupt enemies within, whom I will put behind bars", while he lets his own, including three CMs and senior members of his own Ministry, make merry. 

The latest icing in the cake, is today's voluminously documented expose about the murky deal by one of his CMs, (Already accused of robbing the pdf rice of the bpl families), for the same Augusta Westland helicopters that they are busy, day and night accusing the Congress big-wig of. The poor Mr Sharma, the under secretary, had to become a fugitive to help the expose! And what lies the Govt spread about him!!!

To the Nation : "Within 5 years, I will give you Congress mukt Bharat." 

They murdered democracy in Arunachal and tried the same trick in Uttarakhand, only to be thwarted by the highest judiciary of the Nation.

What is most surprising is that the figure head C-in-C, who, even though he was a respected leading Congressman, had refused to sign two key proclamations sent to him by the earlier UPA Govt, signed on the dotted line, like a puppet, each and every proclamation that was sent to him by this Govt. What transpired each time, between the President and the senior Ministers who took the proclamations to him?

What else can you expect from a man who demonically and ruthlessly sidelined the very elder who led him up the political rung literally by his little finger, the man who stood like the 'Rock of Gibraltar' between a disgraced CM and his downfall. 

What else can you expect from a man who deceitfully won the votes of the simple soldiers, the sentinels at our borders, defending the democracy of our Nation and then instructed his minions to tell them, "It was your fault that you believed election jumla". No one has thought of filing a case of cheating and fraud against him!!!

And now, through the 7th CPC, he is in the process of making the soldier crawl limbless, behind all the Central civil and uniformed services.

Yes crawl. That is right. The Chief of the Army Staff, who commands nearly 2.1 million troops, (Including reservists; not to speak of over 0.35 million pensioners), was made to sit out and then told by the RM to leave without an audience. Reason? He had come without an appointment!!!

There was a time when even the Maoists in Bengal were scared to death of the presence of the Army. I remember the incident in the heart of Calcutta, when a Maoist tried to throw a grenade at an Army IS column on vehicles, but was shot dead before he was halfway through his throwing action. The Maoists never again tried to attack an Army Column. 

During the same 1969 - '70 IS duties, called up after the civil authority had completely failed in almost all of the State, our engineer unit was camped in a grove at Durgapur, which was the erstwhile den of the Maoists. Never did the Maoists ever dare attack us.

Compare that to today's scenario when an Army column has to carry placards to tell the arsonists, "Please don't attack us, we are the Army"!!! 

With policemen masquerading  as soldiers and so termed with impunity by all and sundry, with the blessings of the Central Govt, the word 'soldier' has lost its sanctity and dignity. The uniform has become a cursed item for the real soldier.

The Defence Forces are categorised as an unorganised sector; we cannot form unions or associations; we cannot protest; we cannot strike work; and thanks to the present RM, a military commander now cannot even maintain discipline in his Unit and ensure the integrity of his command of around 1000 men/women, so essential to a force where a soldier has often to charge to his certain death in the battle fields, on the verbal orders of his commander. Why? Because the esteemed ignorant RM has forbidden any disciplinary action against any soldier, who breaks the chain of command in sending his grievance to the RM. Damned be the Army Act, the Army Rule and the Defense Service Regulations, which contain well defined procedures of redressing grievances. 

In all democracies around the world, except India, the word, 'veteran' brings awe in the countenance of the general populace, led by its discerning leaders. In India, however, the word is synonymous with a neglected, dishonoured 'has been'. What is there for a soldier when he pawns his life for the safety of his Nation? A little honour and well being of the family he leaves behind? Is it too much?

While the self serving generals stoically remain meek and mute spectators of this degradation of the Defence Forces,  demoralisation and disaffection are fast brewing among the all ranks below. 

I can see on the horizon a distinct possibility of catastrophic events, which may destroy our Country and set-in the dawn of irreversible changes in the polity of India.

They tried their dirty tricks in Delhi and got a mighty slap from even its poor but knowledgeable sections of electorate. 

They upgraded their bag of dirty tricks in Bihar, but received a humiliating kick  from the proud people of the land of the Gupta and the Mauryan Empires. 

The fanatics of the Parivar are so obsessed that they do not learn lessons easily. They have continued to follow the same formula of defaming, deharmonising, disaffecting and upending their bags of dirty tricks in each and every state elections since Bihar. In their desperation to achieve majority in the Upper House of the Nation, the welfare of the Nation and its peaceful ethos were fair game for the chicanery of these monsters

In the most advanced state of the Country, which truly is a melting pot of communal harmony, and which, not for nothing we call 'God's own country', the poison of communalism were injected for electoral gains and when that did not work, publicly compared the State to Somalia. There is no doubt that the electorate of the State, will give a befitting reply to this insult hurled at the proud people of one of the most prosperous states of our Country. They have already started the process with their #PoMon twitters!

In Tamil Nadu, one of the best administered states of the Country, he calls the administration inept and inefficient!!!  And of course, the Congress is always corrupt, while his own corrupt are knights in shining white armour!!! No doubt my proud Tamil brothers and sisters too will soon give an appropriate reply through the AVMs. 

Lies, lies and more lies, in the manner of the German Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda  minister. More the merrier. Repeated oftener, makes it believable. 

Every claim is a lie. Every figure quoted is fake and untrue. Doctored and fake videos are manufactured in their production factories, manned by the motivated members of their Parivar. With the help of a national media, most under duress, are helping the spread of these lies.

While the Govt and the media croons the falling commodity prices, such of us who are born and brought up in the North and for whom Dal is staple, are buying Arhar for Rs 260/- a kg.  Weekly grocery bills have mounted from Rs 500/- to Rs 2,500/-.

As warned by me three years ago, this man and his Parivar are set to obliterate the very idea of Bharatiata, our age old heritage.

Arise my sisters, brothers and friends of Bharat and save our Nation from this ruthless maniac and his Parivar, who managed to even subvert the loyalty of a serving Army officer, sworn to defend a secular Nation and make him a co-conspirator in terror cases along with terrorists, who are also members of the Parivar.

7th CPC 

AND 

The ARMED FORCES

WILL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF?

Brig Anil Gupta

Preamble by Samuel:

The Armed Forces are being deliberately and un-mistakenly being pushed to walled corner. The trend has been steady over the last four decades but of late it seems to be gathering storm. 

As a keen student of History, I wonder what will happen when the 'walled corner' is finally reached. Even the meekest cat is known to go for the jugular. 

Every commander in the Armed Forces, to the last section/detachment, is sworn to protect the safety, welfare and well being of the soldiers under command. Failure to do so is a serious failure of command and control. 

This time around, we have enemies within, who are hell bent on trampling the honour and dignity of the soldier to dust.

It is time some one in this Country of ours drummed some sense into the powers that be that disgruntled and demoralised  Defense Forces cannot protect it against well armed and motivated enemies around, who are watching the goings on with glee. 

The Article By Brig Anil Gupta

Ever since the Seventh Pay Commission report has been made public there has been a sense of great resentment and let down in the armed forces community. While the veterans were battling for justified grant of One Rank One Pension (OROP) the men in uniform were hopeful that the impending pay commission report will deliver justice to them and will set right the unsettled anomalies of the fourth, fifth and sixth pay commissions as promised by their political masters. The battle hardened soldiers were not only surprised by the bomb shell delivered by Mr Mathur Chairman of the Seventh Pay Commission but were also highly demoralised. 

Having learnt from the previous experience of the Indian Air Force, the three service chiefs immediately swung into action to not only douse the simmering fire amongst the rank and file but also to plan a joint strategy to address the government. The seventh pay commission not only failed to resolve the pending anomalies of the previous pay commissions but added further salt to the injury by equating the status of the Armed Forces of India with that of the Central Armed police Forces. It is a pity that the bureaucrats in our country fail to draw the distinction between the Armed Forces and the Police Forces. The Pay Commission also went beyond its charter and has tried to tinker with the terms and conditions of service of the rank and file of the Armed Forces. The armed forces were harmed both monetarily as well as status/protocol.

Much has already been written in the media on the subject. The basis of the report is a study carried out by Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis, a strategic think-tank, comparing the pay of Indian Armed Forces with that of certain foreign armies of developed countries. The competence of IDSA to carry out such a study is questionable. Moreover, why only the armed forces have been singled out for such a comparison and why not other services like IAS, IFS, Forest, Railways, IPS to name a few? The answer is simple; the study was motivated and designed to reduce the salary, perks and status of the armed forces. But what worries the soldiers is the possibility of history repeating itself. Though every pay commission since 1973 has been unfair to the armed forces major resentment surfaced after the announcement of the sixth pay commission report in 2008. It led to a major showdown between the three service chiefs and politico-bureaucratic establishment. The services requested the then government to appoint their representative in the Committee of Secretaries appointed by the government to look into the various anomalies in the 6th CPC report that were brought to the notice of the government. The request of the Service Chiefs was based on the logic that 30% (nearly 1/3rd) of the central government employees affected by the pay commission belonged to the three services. The request was not granted but an assurance was given that their concerns would be addressed with sympathy and without prejudice. In keeping with the apolitical stance of the Armed Forces the service chiefs conceded but were taken aghast when the report of the committee was announced after approval of the government. The services found that not only were their major grievances not addressed three more glaring discrepancies were introduced in the final Cabinet notification. The three service chiefs not only felt let down in front of the forces they commanded but also badly humiliated. They took up the matter separately with the Defence Minister and the Prime Minister and conveyed the concerns of the Armed Forces. But they learnt to their dismay that real villain was none else than their own Ministry of Defence (MOD) which presented a very weak case without relevant supporting documents to the PMO and Finance Ministry.Incidentally, this was worse than the aftermath of 5th Pay Commission ten year earlier when the armed forces pointed out 48 anomalies out of which only eight had been resolved during the decade preceding announcement of 6th Pay Commission Award. Fortunately, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, a no non-sense officer, was the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee then. He convinced his other two colleagues to delay the implementation of flawed 6th CPC Report in the Armed Forces. Accordingly, the decision was communicated by the respective service headquarters to their rank and file through a signal message. The message was received with great jubilation by the subordinate units which sent jitters to the politico-bureaucratic nexus as well as received adverse comments from certain quarters in the media. It was Nitin Gokhale who came in open support of the service chiefs and wrote, “If the said signal, as the communication is called in military parlance, is defiance, then no military chief will ever be able to give assurances to, and take, his men in confidence. Anyone who has dealt with the armed forces will tell you that there is not an iota of truth in the canard that is being spread about the three Chiefs ‘defying’ the civil authorities. Yes, they questioned the bureaucracy’s attempts to wittingly or unwittingly introduce pay and status disparities between the armed forces and their civilian counterparts. Yes they took the matter to Prime Minister but in no way did they defy the government.” The bold stand taken by the three Chiefs had the desired result and the Prime Minister appointed a group of ministers to resolve the grievances of the armed forces. A couple of main points were immediately settled and the services accepted the implementation of 6th CPC. But true to its traditions the MOD continued to play the spoilsport and number of unresolved anomalies were referred to the 7th CPC. As mentioned earlier 7th CPC report rather than assuaging the hurt feelings of the armed forces has further aggravated the anger and resentment.

The continued apathy of the bureaucracy towards men in uniform is perplexing. World over Armed Forces are considered as the last bastion of a nation and are always held at a different pedestal but in our country under the garb of ensuring civil supremacy the politico-bureaucratic nexus has been working against the interests of the armed forces. The soldiers are remembered and honoured at the time of crisis but forgotten soon thereafter. It is the sheer sense of patriotism which continues to motivate the armed forces personnel to continue to shed their blood for Bharat Mata despite the neglect they suffer at the hands of politico-bureaucratic authorities. Knowing fully well that the armed forces are unhappy with the treatment meted to them by the 7th CPC, effort is being made through the media to spread lies. The latest attempt is an article in a leading national daily titled “Our service chiefs may earn more than US generals.” It states that for the first time, the Indian Army Chief and his counterparts in the IAF and Navy will draw more salary than the top general and equivalent in the US based on purchasing power parity (PPP) terms when the 7th CPC report is implemented. PPP based comparison is misleading and flawed. Also, how can the pay of officers of two different armies having different terms & conditions of service be compared? Moreover, the figures quoted in the article were exaggerated as was evident from another news item published a few days later by Asian Age titled “Indian service chiefs earn less than top US general reveals new data.” Such articles are aimed at creating confusion among the rank and file and create distrust among the officers and other rank. No nation, more so India, can afford to have disgruntled armed forces. It is thus necessary that the history is not made to repeat itself by prudent political intervention at this stage and all genuine grievances of the armed forces are addressed sympathetically and without prejudice before approving the flawed report of 7th CPC. The Prime Minister needs to intervene to ensure that the justice is done to the armed forces and the trend of widening rift in civil-military relations is halted without further delay. There is a murmur already doing the rounds among the rank and file that if history repeats itself who will don the mantle of Admiral Sureesh Mehta this time?

BOFORS  TO AUGUSTA WESTLAND

 Lt-Gen Harwant Singh 

 

Not that corruption exists only in defence deals; it runs, across-the-board, in India. Only in the case of defence deals, it is made sensational. It gets all the more pronounced, when some very obvious malfeasance is at play. 

In the case of Bofors, the Army was made to redraw the order of preference and place Bofors instead of French gun at number 1 position. When the story of money changing hands surfaced, much effort at cover up was at play in the case of this gun. Both in the case of Bofors and now Augusta Westland , play of bribery in the purchase, surfaced in foreign lands and not in India. 

 

In India the movement of VVIPs by helicopters, is handled by the Indian Air Force. This Service is responsible for laying down the Qualitative and Technical requirements in the selection of a suitable machine and its subsequent operations and maintenance. Further user trials of equipment under consideration are carried out within the country, in differing terrain and climate conditions as obtaining in India. Indian Air Force is equally in the know of locations, within the country, where VVIPs need go by helicopter. Therefore no other agency is qualified and need float any additional requirements: technical or otherwise, for VVIP helicopters.

As a rule, single vendor situation is invariably avoided for obvious reasons. In the case of Augusta Westland and Bofors we engineered our way to a position of a single vendor. Since, the original requirement of a ceiling of 6000 meters for the helicopter, was not being met by Augusta Westland, this figure  was reduced to 4500 meters, to be in line with this helicopter's performance parameters. This was done by the PMO and NSA, though these two had no play in this field. Thus Augusta was brought into reckoning. Even this was not enough, so yet another and completely absurd requirement related to the cabin height of 1.8 meters as against the figure of 1.5 meters worked out by the IAF was brought in. This height was based on the plea that the NSG personnel are above 6 feet in height. It implied that these men have to stand around the VVIP during the flight! This cabin height requirement of 1.8 meters ensured that the field was cleared, leaving Augusta Westland as the sole contender.

The trials instead of being conducted in the country, were carried out in another country, where terrain and climate was not even remotely similar to that obtaining in India.  Because of diverse terrain and climate conditions obtaining in India, trials of equipment normally takes one to two years. In this case trials were completed and report finalized in a period of four months.           ( Jan to April ) Further it is alleged that trials were carried out on 'representative' equipment and not on the actual equipment. The actual equipment, ( AW 101 ) at that point of time was still under development.

Later some additional features in the helicopter were asked for. IAF required Traffic Collusion Avoidance System ( TCAS ) and Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) installed in all the helicopters. Of all the people, SPG recommended inclusion of Medical Evacuation System (Medevac) for 8 helicopters. These additional last minute, inclusions were a God sent opportunity for Westland to jack up the price. While IAF, based on past experience, wanted only 8 helicopters, NSG insisted on requirement of 12. How NSG arrived at this figure of 12 is anybody's guess. In the past IAF had been meeting the requirement of VVIPs with 8 helicopters with utalisation level being only 29 percent.

^{In single vendor cases, Contract Negotiation Committee (CNC) is required to establish a benchmark of reasonableness of price prior to the opening of the commercial offer. Now if the price indicated by the supplier is within the estimated cost by the buyer, price negotiations are generally dispensed with. In this case the estimated cost was assessed to be Rs 973 crores and this was approved by the MoD in January 2006. However by September 2008 the estimated cost was jacked up to Rs 4877.5 crores, more than six times the earlier estimate. Though finally Augusta Westland quoted a price of Rs 3966 crores, which being well within the estimated cost worked out by us, the proposal was acceptable. Though later this figure was brought down                   Rs 3726.96.  Though the question remained as to who jacked up the estimated cost six times!} 

Once the murky side of this deal came into public knowledge, Government of India cancelled the contract. In the meantime three helicopters had been delivered and certain amount paid to the company. It is only when criminal proceedings were initiated against the Finmechanica ( Augusta Westland is a division of Finmechanica) CEO, Mr Gieseppe Orsi and others that the case of bribery and involvement of Indian officials and politicians came into focus and Indian governments was prodded by the Italian investigation agencies that in 2013, the government handed over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation and further payments stopped. Now the Italian Appelllate court has laid bare the details of bribe money paid to various people in India, to clinch the deal.  

^{We should not repeat the Bofor’s episode where all the guilty got away, including Defence Secretary Bhatnagar, whom CBI had charge sheeted. He was sent as lt-Governor thus placing him outside the reach of palsied arm of law. Even in the case of Augusta West land some likely culprits have been moved into constitutional positions. Be that it may this one opportunity to bring to book, each and every person guilty of corruption, should not be wasted. This is a great opportunity for the country to take firm step on the road to putting an end to corruption, which is eating into the vitals of the nation. Every one, without exception, involved in this murky deal should be hauled up and let this be the first firm step in the direction of rooting out all consuming malaise of corruption in the country.}

WHOM ARE YOU ACCUSING 

OF CORRUPTION ?

In her affidavit for the April 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Smriti Irani had claimed to have completed her BA in 1996 from DU (School of Correspondence), whereas in another affidavit of July 11, 2011 to contest the Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat, she had said her highest educational qualification was B.Com Part I from the School of Correspondence, DU. In the affidavit filed for nomination of April 16, 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Irani said she had completed Bachelor of Commerce Part-I from School of Open Learning, DU.

While a case is going on a court against Smriti Irani's claim of having passed B.A., there is no doubt that she is guilty of misrepresentation of facts in her multiple affidavits. These are offences for which the guilty have to suffer jail terms. 

And yet, not only that she continues as a member of the Rajya Sabha, Smriti Irani also continues to be the the HRD Minister of the Country, presiding over the destiny of institutions catering to the highest levels of education. 

Legality and morality be damned.

But then, why should you bother about such little things, when you yourself rode the charge of falsifying in your affidavits to a massive victory. 

But, the Country is seeing through the charade. the people have answered twice with telling blows. They will do so again, notwithstanding all the machinations.

A PTI report of May 03, 2016, states the following :

Assistant registrar of the School of Open Learning, Delhi University, O.P. Tanwar, told Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate, Harvinder Singh,  that the class 12 documents, submitted with the admission form for the 1993-'94 B.A. Fy, Political Science degree course, by Union RD minister Smriti Irani, are yet to be found by the University. The university’s response came in pursuance to the court’s earlier order summoning documents from its School of Open Learning department.

The court also asked the SDM of north Delhi to bring the documents filed by Irani with the affidavit for contesting the 2004 polls from Chandni Chowk constituency here and fixed the matter for further hearing on June 6.

The court had earlier directed the Election Commission and DU to bring the documents related to educational qualification of Irani on a complaint filed against her for allegedly giving false information in affidavits to the poll panel.

The court had on November 20 last year allowed the plea of the complainant Ahmer Khan, a freelance writer, seeking a direction to EC and DU officials to bring records of Irani’s educational qualification after he said he was unable to place them before the court.

During the hearing, Vandita Srivastava, SDM of Gauriganj in Amethi, filed original and certified copies of documents filed by Irani during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and said “as per record, no document for (Irani’s) educational qualification was collected with the nomination form”.

The court also took on record the original and certified copies of documents filed by Irani pertaining to Irani’s Rajya Sabha nomination in Gujarat in 2011. Deputy secretary of the Gujarat assembly, S.M. Menon, filed the documents summoned by the court regarding Irani’s Rajya Sabha nomination and informed it that “a candidate need not to file supporting documents at the time of filing nomination.”

IS CORRUPTION IN OUR DNA?

I recently read the blog of one of our illustrious and prolific writers, which asked the question, "Is Treachery in Our DNA?" I am, instead, asking my sisters, brothers and friends of Bharat a counter question, "Is Corruption In Our DNA?".

Remember the year 1977? Emergency had just been lifted. Many went wild. Unions were one of them. An Army officer had just been posted as a garrison engineer. It was his first posting to MES. Driven by the lofty ideals of his late Dad, he convened a meeting of his entire staff and gave them a stern message, "Naa khaunga, na khane dunga". 

Yes, believe you me, this phrase was not coined by the Chappan Chaati, but by this young Army officer, 37 years before it became a 'Takia Kalam' for the Nation.

The corrupt plotted and planned the downfall of this utopian Major. Strikes, even hunger strikes were engineered. With the zeal of a missionary, the Major faced them all. The planners and plotters had not catered for this officer, groomed in the motto enshrined in the Chetwode Hall of IMA :

    "The safety, honour and welfare of your country 
      come first, always and every time.
      The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command 

      come next.
     Your own ease, comfort and safety 

      come last, always and every time".
During the period of the previous GE, one of the staff had had an accident while coming to office from home, which finally cost him one of his legs, after a prolonged hospitalisation. He had remained without pay as the accident while coming from home was not considered on duty. Within three months, the new GE had got the whole absence regularised and handed over a cheque of two years of arrears of salary, bringing great relief to the family of the employee, with five school going children. The GE thus became a folk hero, every one was talking of in the town.

I also remember the words of Sam Bahadur to the cadets during the passing out parade at IMA in 1999 :

          "You have only two duties. 
            The first is to ensure the safety of your country at any cost.
            The second is to uphold the trust and pride of your near and dear ones."
           
            (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wc6zQKzNaM)

Chappan Chaati rode to power on the promise of change, freedom from corruption and justice to all. There has certainly been change, good, bad, indifferent; some expected, some unexpected. 

For one, the massive almost universal adulation has lost steam and changed to disaffection among large sections of the common man, apparent from the loss in two consecutive assembly elections, forcing the ruling party to look up underhand methods of coming to power in more states, like encouraging defection, with the ultimate aim of manufacturing majority in the Upper House of MPs. In the process, erstwhile congressmen, embroiled in corruption cases, have become allies of the BJP in the latter's power game. Manipur and Uttarakhand are glaring examples

The slogan of "Na khaunga, na khane dunga" has started to sound hollow with multiple cases of corruption among leaders in the States, be it MP, Karnataka, Rajasthan or Chattisgarh. In the last named state, even PDS rice has not been spared.

Then there are the billionaire 'Babas/Godpeople'.
(http://www.siliconindia.com/news/general/SuperRich-Spiritual-Gurus-of-India-nid-110419-cid-1.html).
In today’s profane world, the Indian gurus/Godmen have become “miracle workers”. They have consciously acquired a celebrity image with their savvy, powerful personalities. These have acquired billions through a network of NGOs (Tax free), and massive private cash donations, with the help of which they have started to build and control vast business empires. With their enormous wealth, they have also started to dabble in politics and manipulate the media. Even though a few of these have fallen foul of the law of the land through their misdeeds, they continue to command massive following.

The last bastion of ethics, morality nationalism, the soldier, also seems to have been caught in the web of the unethical, immorality and lack of commitment to the Nation. When we swore to the motto enshrined on the paneled walls of  the Chetwode Hall, while passing through it at the end of the passing out parade at IMA, we told, with God as our witness, that the Nation would come first, always and every time. What happened to that self administered oath? Why have we started to let the Nation down? 

The safety, honour and welfare of our Nation are endangered not only each time we indulge in corrupt deeds, but also each time we either close our eyes to corruption and misdeeds as also the times we bow to patently wrong orders and those, which in our best judgement, are destined to be harmful to the Nation; each time that we lose our backbone; each time that we place power, pelf and self before the safety, honour and welfare of Bharat, our Nation.

The land on which 'Adarsh' building stands in South Mumbai, was allotted for the Kargil war heroes and their families of those martyred. Look what came of it! The full details of the case are not fully known to the entire Country.

The original application for allotment of land for Adarsh was made just after the Kargil war. Though the application mentioned the beneficiaries as soldier, both serving and veterans and no mention of 'Kargil' or even widows was made in the application, it was designed to take advantage of the empathy generated by the Kargil war. 

The widows were added to the 'Adarsh' cause in a letter of HQ, M & G Area in Apr 2000. Soon after, in an effort to go beyond the initial scope of the project, the 'K' word was added in Jun 2000, a year after the 'K' war. Thereafter, the 'Brand Value' of the 'K' word was fully exploited at every step, in cohorts with the entire establishment, both military and civil as well as the builders' lobby, to obtain sanctions in total violation of many a rule and regulation.

At the end, a project which started off as one solely for the defense personnel, ended up having just three Kargil martyres, a few defense personnel and mostly civilians. 

The Mumbai HC has now ordered the building to be demolished. Most of the defense officers, have reportedly already disposed off their flats. I do not h

Here-in below, I am reproducing the list of allottees/owners of flats in Adarsh, for you to know the extent of corruption, even in the name of martyrs. 

1.    Shri RC Thakur, one of the foot soldiers behind all the machinations.
2.   Brigadier MM Wanchu, the then Sub Area commander.
3.   Commander Rajiv Pilo, IN.
4.   Commander AS Balakrishnan, IN.
5.   Surg Capt PS Tampi, IN.
6.   Shri Parmanand K Hinduja, businessman and reported to be related to a 
       politician.
7.   Shri Sudhakar Laxman Madke, politician.
8.   Smt Sushila Shaligram, civilian, close relative of ex PS to the then CM.
9.   Admiral Madhvendra Singh, PVSM, AVSM, VSM
10. Shri JM Abhyankar, the then secy to govt of Maharashtra.
11.  Shri PV Deshmukh, the then Secretary, Urban Development Dept,(UDD)
12. Shri Gajanan S Koli, relative of MLC.
13. Shri Amol V Kharbhari, politician.
14. Shri Kiran Bhadange, dummy.
15. Shri Kanhaiyalal Gidwani (Congress MLC), promoter. As per the 
       Commission of Enquiry, he was empowered by the Society, to dispose off 
       certain number of flats at his own discretion.
16.  Shri Kailash K Gidwani (Son of Congress MLC Gidwani)
17.  Shri Amit K Gidwani (Son of Congress MLC Gidwani)
18.  Shri Arun P Pawar, related to the Pawars.
19.  Major Ashish Tandon
20. Lieutenant Commander A Puran Kumar
21.  Major General VS Yadav
22. Lieutenant General PK Rampal
23. Colonel Amarjeet Singh
24. Lieutenant Colonel PH Ram
25. Brigadier AC Chopra
26. Lieutenant Colonel RK Singh
27. Commander John Mathew, IN.
28. Major General Tej Kishen Kaul, PVSM, AVSM, VSM
29. Lieutenant General GS Sihota
30. Brigadier MD Singh
31.  Commodore Gopal Bharati, IN.
32. Brigadier Romeshchander Sharma, allegedly recommended by relative of 
        chavan, 
33. Lieutenant General Shantanu Choudhry
34. Vice Admiral Madanjit Singh, IN.
35. Brigadier Tara Kant Sinha
36. Captain AP Singh
37. Lieutenant Commander Chunnilal
38. Shri Rajesh Shantilal Bora, politician.
39. Dr Arun V Dawle, politician.
40. Shri Sampat R Khidse, politician.
41.  Shri Anand S Bharose, IAS.
42. Smt Seema Vyas, wife of former collector Pradeep Vyas.
43. Shri Kanishka J Phatak, son of former Municipal Commissioner Jairaj 
       Phatak.
44. Miss Supriya V Maske, related to a politician.
45. Shri Shriniwas D Patil, ex IAS, ex NCP MP.
46. Shri Shivajirao C Deshmukh, the then minister.
47. Shri Shah Dhaval Rajesh, related to politicain.
48. Ms Kavita S Godbole (IAS, related to Cong MLC Gidwani)
49. Commander Harbhajan Singh (Retired), IN.
50. Shri Malav J Shah, allegedly related to close friend of the then CM.
51.  Shri Rajesh Kumar Das, allegedly related to close friend of the then CM
52. Shri Aditya B Patil, related to politician.
53. Ms Susheela Sethi, daughter of IAS Retired Mr. Subhash Lala, Ex-Principal          Secretary – UDD & Ex-Principal Secretary of CM – Vilasrao Deshmukh.
54. Shri Chandrashekar R Gaikwad, nominee of IAS lobby.
55. Shri Shivajirao Shankar Kale, nominated by a politician.
56. Shri Krishnarao D Bhegade, allegedly nominated by a politician.
57. Dr Sanjay Radkar, allegedly nominated by  IAS lobby.
58. Shri Arun S Adate, allegedly nominated by a politician.
59. Shri Jitendra S Awhad, NCP MLC, a known strong man of Thane.
60. Miss Soniya S Kholapure, allegedly nominated by a politician.
61. Shri Vishwas B Chougale, allegedly nominated by a politician.
62. Shri Raghunath M Bhosale, allegedly nominated by a politician.
63. Shri Suresh Prabhu, present railway minister.
64. Shri Uttam Ghakare, dummy.
65. Major NW Khankhoje, dummy.
66. Shri Nivruti G Bhosale, allegedly nominated by a politician.
67. Shri Amar Singh Waghmare, allegedly presold to a business honour.
68. Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh, VSM, allegedly presold to a businss.
69. Shri Krishnajirao Rakhmajirao Desai (alias) Babasaheb
       Kupekar, former Speaker of Maharashtra Assembly.
70. Shri Ranjit Chintamani Sangitrao, son of IAS Mr. C.S. Sangitrao, Ex-Principal 
       Secretary – UDD & Ex-Principal Secretary of CM – Vilasrao Deshmukh. Ex-Collector,      
       Mumbai.
71. Devyani Khobragade, IFS & daughter of the then GM, BEST, Uttam 
       Khobragade.
72. Lieutenant Commander Gurumukh S Grewal, IN.
73. Smt Seema Vinod Sharma, allegedly related to Ashok Chavan.
74. Shri Jagdish Ambika Prasad Sharma, allegedly related to politician.
75. Shri Sajjan Singh Yadav, dummy.
76. Shri Kedari Vishal Kishore, nominated by IAS lobby.
77. General Nirmal Chander Vij, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, ADC.
78. General Deepak Kapoor, PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM, ADC.
79. Smt Idzes Angmo Kundan, the then city collector & still in the  Secretariat.
80. Shri Onkar Tiwari, son of Ramanand Tiwari, then secretary of UDD.
81. Shri Balasahib Yeshwantrao Sawant, politician.
82. Shri Sadusing Fulsing Rajput, dummy.
83. Mr Mukundrao Govindrao Mankar, allegedly related to a politician.
84. Mr Sanjoy Shankaran, son of former Chief Secretary D K Sankaran.
85. Mr Paramveer Abhey Sancheti, son of brother of BJP MLA Mr. Chainsukh 
       Kisanlal Sancheti from Malkapur, Buldhana. Closely related to BJP 
       National President Mr. Nitin Gadkari as his Full-Time Business Partner 
       Mr. Ajay Sancheti, National Executive Member of BJP.
86.  Mr Suresh Gulabrao Atram, dummy.
87.  Ms Sheetal Vinod Ganju, allegedly IAS lobby.
88.  Mr Anil Kumar Thakur,  allegedly nominated by a politician.
89.  Mr Bhavesh Ambalal Patel,  allegedly nominated by a politician.
90.  Mrs Bhagwati Manoharlal Sharma, late mother-in-law of Ashok Chavan.  
91.   Mr Madanlal Milkiram Sharma (Ashok Chavan's relative).
92.   Mr Satyasandha Vinayak Barve. IAS allotee. 
93.   Major General Ram Kanwar Hooda, resident of Delhi NCR.
94.   Mr Dhondiram Ganpati Waghmare, allegedly related to IAS officer.
95.   Colonel KJS Khurana. 
96.   Ms Raorane Rupali Harishchandra, allegedly dummy for a politician.
97.    Shri Siddhartha Sonu Gamre, allegedly dummy for a politician.
98.    Shri Girish Pravinchandra Mehta, allegedly related to a MLA.
99.    Shri Manilal K Thakur, allegedly related to a MLA.
100. Petty Officer Sushil Chand Sharma.
101.  Shri S B Chavan, in the name of a long dead political leader of 
          Maharashtra.
102.  Captain Praveen Kumar.
103.  Dr (Mrs) Archana Tiwari, allegedly dummy for a political leader.

"I AM THE PRADHAN SEVAK"

 BUT MY  MINISTERS WILL

HAVE THE ARROGANCE OF RULERS

Believe you me my readers, '62 is just round the corner. Lack of morale causes depression. Our Defense Forces are fast turning into a 1.3 million uniformed men and women with sapped morale. Thanks to the present Governing Council of India, its cabinet.

While Chappan Chaati goes around proclaiming that he is the Pradhan Sevak of India, he has constituted his cabinet, the behavior of whose members is anything but 'sevak-like'.

The arbitrariness of these cabinet members shames even Mohd Tughlak, who is famed to have ordered minting of leather coins with his face on them.

These 'Rulers' not only issue arbitrary orders, but also arrogantly refuse their reconsideration, till vote banks are threatened, and ride rough shod over all high placed authorities in every domain and most humiliatingly dismiss them from their  presence. 

The whole aim is to brow beat these authorities into abject submission, making them sing the proverbial, "Yes Sir, no Sir, three bags full Sir".

Medieval Britain saw scores who dared the Kings/ Queens, thrown into dungeons and later put to the sword or thrown down from the Tower of London.

The arbitrary jailing is already in practise. Will it be the Kutub Minar the next.

The top judiciary, the last bastion against these 'monarch of all I survey' types has already been given a dressing down by the NSA, in the garb of a briefing on National Security.

The President, who had refused to sign a proclamation during the UPA - II days, has been more than compliant to the rule by proclamations being practised by the present Rulers. He has been firmly told that he was only a signing machine.

Here is another damnation of the arrogance of these Rulers, as amply and succinctly  brought out by Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi, the former Vice Chief of Army Staff.

PARRIKAR OVERRULES THE DEFENSE CHIEFS

TAKES IGNORANCE & ARROGANCE 

TO A NEW LEVEL

                                                                                                                                                        April 25,2016

“The army is not like a limited liability company; to be reconstructed, remodeled, liquidated and refloated from week to week as the money market fluctuates. It is not an inanimate thing, like a house, to be pulled down or enlarged or structurally altered at the caprice of the tenant or the owner, it is a living thing. If it is bullied, it sulks; if it is unhappy it pines; if it is harried it gets feverish; if it is sufficiently disturbed it will wither and dwindle and almost die; and when it comes to this serious condition, it is only to be revived by lots of time and lots of money”. 

                                                                                                       - Winston S Churchill, 1905 

The Indian Army has a long tradition of checks and balances in curbing ‘wrongs’, may they be operational, administrative, man power or discipline related. Every issue and each case is deliberated upon extensively before judgment is passed or plans finalized.

Under the circumstances, one read with considerable consternation and shock that the Raksha Mantri (RM) of our country and the person responsible for the security of the nation has lost faith in the Chiefs of the three services. 

My reference is to two recent diktats of our worthy RM, who presides over the three services and is supposed to have the interest of the armed forces as his foremost task. 

In the first case, the RM, no doubt at the behest of the bureaucracy, ordered that in future selection boards for officers, an independent observer would sit in to ensure that the proceedings are above board. This move was apparently strongly objected to by the Chiefs and for good reasons. However, the RM persisted and only modified his orders stating that at least a representative from another service as an observer must attend. 

It is understood that the issue is still under consideration, but since it has undoubtedly been raised and reported, it reflects adversely on the propensity of the RM to shoot from the hip, without fully grasping the implications of such diktats. 

As a brief background, it was the first Prime Minister (also the defence minister), Jawaharlal Nehru, well known for his deep distrust of the military, who had first tampered with the then prevailing instructions in the Defence Services Regulations (DSR) relating to Selection Boards for officers that had existed for decades. By an order dated 10 April 1953, he ruled that all proposals for promotions and postings of officers of Colonels and equivalent ranks and above, along with dossiers would henceforth be submitted to the RM, along with reasons for non-selection. It went on to add that no promotions/ postings will be announced until the Minister’s approval had been obtained and communicated. 

One does not know as to how the service headquarters responded to this high-handed order, but it did become the norm! This was the start of nepotism and politicization that resulted in promoting incompetent sycophants in the military and the adverse results were visible to the entire world when the much vaunted Indian Military suffered the ignominious debacle of 1962! 

The successive RM’s and MoD bureaucrats lay low and bided their time, till during the NDA Regime in the second half of the 1990’s, the then RM-George Fernandes, issued an additional fiat stating that ‘the central government has the inherent power to modify, review, approve with variation or repeal recommendations of selection boards’. In other words –“we are the bosses”! Jai Ho!!! 

In no democracy in the world, has the so-called ‘Civil Supremacy’ manifested itself in this manner. The ignorance and arrogance of the politico-bureaucratic combine had now reached its zenith and one witnessed, with shame, even flag rank officers who had not been recommended for promotion by the selection boards, queuing up in front of the concerned joint secretary’s office like supplicants, but with cash in their pockets!!

The authority of the military hierarchy and the impartiality of Selection Boards now lay in tatters, but the Chiefs for unknown reasons remained mum and shackled with their penchant for not ‘rocking the boat’! Another Jai Ho!!! 

Let me now highlight the second fiat issued by our learned RM recently. Most newspapers had a headline last month that stated:“Parrikar raps service HQs for taking action against personnel who complain to him directly”. In elaboration, it was stated that the Defence Minister expressed his anger for the service headquarters taking action against personnel who had made representations to him directly. The Minister also directed that henceforth service headquarters shall restrain from taking action against complaining personnel and if any action needs to be taken, the same shall be first furnished to the MoD for seeking approval of the RM!?! 

The Minister may be under the wrong impression that it is a welfare measure. In actuality, it will result in subverting the loyalty of military personnel and will adversely affect discipline, which is the bedrock of all militaries. Are the brownie points that may accrue to the Minister worth it? 

This move in actuality undermines the discipline of the Indian Military and amounts to gross interference in the chain of command; letting down the hierarchy of the Chiefs; and encouraging serving personnel to violate good order and military discipline that is a fundamental precept military the world over.

. 

This is populism of the worst kind as it interferes with laid down norms of dealing with aggrieved personnel. Aggrieved personnel already have avenues of Non Statutory and Statutory Complaints available to them, which they can invoke if they feel that they have not received complete justice. Besides the overall negative implications of this order, the Minister would be opening the proverbial Pandora's Box, which will bog down both him and the MoD with a spate of ill conceived and ill perceived complaints of even trivial nature. 

The bureaucracy has its own personal and institutional agenda to try and dominate the armed forces, whether it is in pay and allowances; lowering of status; or keeping the services starved of funds for modernization; training and administration. For egoistic reasons, they seem to take a perverse delight in showing how powerful they are, even to the extent of confusing a well educated and learned RM. The Minister would be treading on dangerous ground when such diktats boomerang. When that happens, the bureaucrats will conveniently wash their hands off and let the poor Minister fend for himself. 

No one disputes that prompt redress of grievances by the concerned commanders in the chain is a must, and all commanders do give great importance to regulations,procedures, and in going by the legality of issues involved. Commanders are well conversant with the Regulations; they have studied military law; and they rarely, if at all, cut corners, on account of empathy with their comrades in arms. 

Let the armed forces function and execute their command functions, as per the time tested procedures. In democracies like ours, political leaders must not tamper or short circuit the chain of command of the military. The RM needs to reflect on how an interfering Defence Minister – Krishna Menon seriously damaged the professional military by his gross interference and politicisation of the Indian Military in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, despite being cautioned repeatedly by that great Chief, 'Timmy'. 

If the minister wants to persist in this folly, not caring for the damage he will inflict on the armed forces; then I suggest that he requests for a change of his portfolio and becomes the Home Minister, as the institutions and departments therein are in any case highly politicized and would welcome him with open arms! 

In a democracy, it is the trust that a Defence Minister has with the heads of the armed forces and non-interference in their internal functioning, which result in the armed forces giving their best. If trust is lost or gets diluted, it is the country that suffers, not individuals. The Indian Military has not only served the nation loyally but has done so comprehensively, through wars; insurgencies; major internal disorders and even in areas where the other instruments of the state have failed miserably.