The First Time is the Hardest

"What I don't know can't hurt me!"
Blessed are the service pers who profess ignorance about the treatment meted out to the armed forces by the 6th pay commission and its aftermath. Sitting on a distant ship/ in a field location, getting to read 4 days old news, it is easy to ignore the ignominy being harped upon the forces.

However it is more likely that we come back in limb to a family station and come across the non functional (weren’t they always so) officers of the group/ class ‘A’ services of this great nation who have carried out a coup upon us with the active support of the elected representatives. He will look at your shoulder stripes, snicker and will try to show you losers down at the first instance. If only he could put the amount of his NF Grade pay on the plate in front of his staff car!!

The service bosses, few of them at least, objected the blatant skullduggery/ daylight robbery, but the result of the election gone by, is a clear smack on our faces by the people of this great nation whom we strive to serve with our blood. I continue to believe that the poor public was unable to look beyond their daily bread and the better bakers won the elections.

In a UN mission some years ago, I happened to inquire from an officer from a small South American nation which had a meager and ceremonial army, their strategic plan in face of hostilities from their neighbours. His reply- “We telephone Uncle Clinton”. Has this nation found a dear uncle? Or the Thakur, indeed has got for himself a ‘hijron ki fauj’.

Ours is not to question why- and so is it for our wives and children. An attentive child does notice that his father has now started getting a lower salary than Sh XYZ, who spends precisely 40 hrs per week in his official seat while his pop is out 20 days on the ship or months altogether in the field exercise. And then he notes that his father is an M-Tech from an IIT while Sh XYZ is a B-Com graduate who happened to pass a written test 15 yrs ago, the same year when his own father could not be around to witness his own birth, being involved in a border patrol.

The ‘quality of life,’ is another turn of phrase. It is good that a large no of those with such great ‘quality of life’, mostly the HQs’ lot, are getting ensnared into inquiries involving misappropriation (which got that ‘quality’ in the first place) and are asked to quit. Bye!!

Then there are “volunteer army/ welcome to leave” type HR statements, mostly coming from the half baked and ‘cautious as hell’, how-do-i-climb-0n-your-shoulder-lot. Sirs, if at the onset, you knew your HR beans, sitting on your bums at the Sena Bhavan, we would not have arrived at such a pass.

A few apologists state that a poor nation such as ours cannot afford to pay the army more even if it deserves so. But sirs, even if we die for the cause, a large no will still question the cost of our pall and suspect if we have died to collect the medal. And, in any case it is a question of proportion. Poverty needs to be shared by all govt departments and the politicians themselves

Anyway, as any psychologist will tell you, the first time is the hardest. So it has been difficult for the armed forces (at least for some of us, who can put value on the caliber of our counterparts on the civil side) to accept the blatant injustice. But in course of time we will learn to accept injustices as they come along. In due course, injustices from ___ ___ will also be taken in our stride.

I pray not.