Swordarm » Entries tagged with "Veterans"
Crisis of Confidence
When I joined my Regiment in 1989, amongst the first few mandatory requirements as part of my initiation, as instructed by my senior subaltern, was memorising the names of all the Commandants and Risaldar Majors of the Regiment since it’s raising. Once I could rattle off these names even in my sleep, I was handed the list of every officer who had been commissioned into the regiment before me to memorise as well. Fortunately for me, my regiment was just 17 years old when I had joined, so the tasks were not as difficult as it was of those of my coursemates who had joined outfits over 200 years old. Because, as I found out when we exchanged notes a few months later during our Young Officers course, similar orders had … Read entire article »
Heroes amongst us
This Diwali, there was a special effort from the government to put the soldiers in the forefront of national consciousness. The prime minister himself celebrated Diwali amidst troops deployed on the remote frontiers, just as he had the past two years. In addition, this year there was a drive to connect the soldiers with people they fight to defend via the ‘Sandesh to Soldiers’ campaign. People were encouraged to send their message to soldiers via social … Read entire article »
Filed under: Military
Penny foolish pound foolish …
I would like to meet the babu who came up with the apparently brilliant idea of excluding the Pre-Mature Retirees (PMR) from the ambit of OROP – I’m told he’s one of the smarties from PMO. On the face of it, he must have really impressed his political masters. After all, in one stroke the assessed burden of granting OROP has been reduced to less than half. And, since the affected people have chosen to leave the service voluntarily before their superannuation, they can’t complain if they don’t get the same terms as those who serve full time. And this had the potential to cause fissures amongst the veteran community, weakening the movement which has assumed ominous proportions for the government. Beaming with pride, he must have gone and explained his … Read entire article »
Filed under: Military
OROP – Constitutionally Speaking (A guest post by Akshat Agarwal)
Guest post by Akshat Agarwal, a budding lawyer In light of the recent controversy over the issue of One Rank One Pension (OROP), it may be pertinent to turn for guidance to the supreme law of the land, the Constitution of India. This document, drafted over thousands of hours of deliberation and discussion, provides the blueprint according to which the government of India is supposed to run the country. As such, the constitution lays down certain principles as inalienable and intrinsic to the very nature of India as envisioned by its writers, as well as by the millions of Indians they represented. One of the most important philosophical foundations of our state and it’s polity is the idea of equality. In a country recently ravaged by colonialism, marked by racial discrimination and … Read entire article »
Mirza Ghalib and the veterans
Mirza Asad-Ullah Khan Ghalib died a poor, miserable man. Like most geniuses, his work got its true approbation long after he wasn’t around to bask in the glory. But the lack of recognition was only part of the reason for his misery. He had much too high an opinion of himself to hanker for praise from lesser mortals, though admittedly it never hurt to be extoled at mushairas. The major cause of his melancholy was … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blogitorial, Military
Join the army – and die!
Foot in the mouth disease is a common affliction of the Indian politician. It comes in two basic forms – the ‘shoot and claim misquote’ and ‘shoot and apologize’. Dr Bhim Singh, the minister from Bihar was struck down by the latter when he asserted quite indignantly that “people join the army to die”. Of course, he duly expressed remorse and apologized following a media driven outrage. But the truth is that one is not surprised to hear the attitude displayed by his remarks. Possibly in the throes of the virulent affliction mentioned earlier, Bhim Singh voiced his opinion on the role of the soldiers – that of cannon fodder, paid to lay down their lives for the great nation that the likes of him govern. And while he was … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blogitorial, Boundary Dispute, Military, Politics, Values