Babu-neta & the fauji
Source: By Jay Bhattacharjee: The Statesman
These evocative lines have a disputed origin; some attribute them to an anonymous poet and others to that arch-imperialist Kipling, who, despite his numerous other faults, wielded a fine pen when it came to non-colonial themes. All Indians who have read these words will immediately relate to the way in which our country has treated its armed forces.
To be fair, this deplorable conduct is not the fault of the ordinary citizens. The average Indian has always admired our men and women in uniform and has readily come forward at every opportunity to honour and respect the nation’s defenders. The only two groups that have formed a shabby alliance since Independence to downgrade our armed forces, disrespect them and deny them the necessary wherewithal to defend our frontiers are the politicians and the bureaucrats. The behaviour of this coterie has been so venal and egregious that the phrase neta-babu cabal is now widely accepted and used in all studies and assessments of military issues.
I genuinely believe that the Indian military is the one institution that has, to a very great extent, avoided the graft, corruption, sloth, inefficiency and treason that now constitute the DNA of our bureaucracy and polity. Certainly, the armed forces have shortcomings and deficiencies; after all, our soldiers share the genes and culture of the rest of the population and the armed forces do not live in isolation. We have had some disastrous military leaders, but they are invariably people who were favourites of the neta-babu combine, foisted on the armed forces and given undeserved boosts in the services hierarchy.
Nevertheless, the vast majority of our services personnel have been role-models as far as their commitment, dedication, honesty and valour are concerned. Whenever there has been a crisis or calamity, whether natural or defence-related, the military has come forward to serve the country without asking any questions or seeking any compensation or reward. It seems that this is what sticks in the gullets of our politicians and civil functionaries ~ that the nation has such a glorious icon, while they, themselves, are so disliked and abhorred.
There is history at work here, as in all socio-political scenarios. Since Independence, the Nehruvian-power centre was not comfortable with the military. Some analysts have attributed this to the perception that the Indian armed forces were much too colonial in their culture and traditions. Yet, the same “colonial” army saved India’s bacon both in Kashmir and in Hyderabad. It is now undisputed that Krishna Menon’s influence on Nehru also contributed to the slow rift between the country’s political leadership and the armed forces. Menon’s abrasive and quixotic method of working led to enormous resentment in the defence establishment, culminating in the Thimayya episode in 1959. The redoubtable General, who was Army Chief, could not reconcile himself to Menon’s style of working and decided to resign. Nehru successfully managed to get the good General to withdraw his resignation, on the basis of assurances that the situation would be remedied, although definitive records are not available. This was the beginning of the steady southern drift of the armed forces. The politicians and the civil services saw this, and rightly so, as the beginning of their long march to establish themselves as the uncontested leaders in the new sultanate of Delhi.
Events in Pakistan also helped the Indian political-bureaucratic establishment to downgrade (and even downsize) the armed forces at every conceivable opportunity. Nehru, aided and abetted by Krishna Menon, his faithful ideologue and companion for many decades, allowed his initial mistrust of the armed forces to become an obsession. There is now enough evidence to suggest that the Union government in the late 1950s, till the Chinese debacle in 1962, was always looking over its shoulders to spot any chances of an army coup in the Pakistani mould.
Taking the cue from their political bosses, the civil services, led by the IAS-IPS combine started their sniping campaign to deny services personnel their legitimate benefits and humiliate them in every possible manner.
The two wars of 1965 and 1971 provided temporary respite to our defenders. By bringing considerable honour and glory to the country, the services thought they had earned the right to be respected and looked after. This was not to be. The babu-neta coterie was soon back to its old games. Here, I must add an important caveat that is necessary in the interest of objectivity. Many of the services chiefs and senior brass were also not strong enough or adequately vigilant when the forces were being downgraded and humiliated. Too many Chiefs of Staff were glad to accept plum post-retirement postings and assignments that allowed them to retain their earlier life-styles.
We have to fast-forward to the last decade, in order to have a full picture of the chicanery and venality of the Indian political establishment towards the Republic’s defenders at the present time. The first instance is the “Rank Pay” case, the origins of which lay in an obvious anomaly in the report of the 4th Pay Commission, whose recommendations went into effect on 1 January 1986. After years of litigation, the matter was decided by the Supreme Court in September 2012. Instead of implementing the order of the country’s highest court, the babus changed it surreptitiously and illegally, so as to deprive retired defence personnel of a major chunk of benefits. The Defence Secretary, under whose watch this egregious violation was committed, was Shashi Kant Sharma, who had earlier gained notoriety by putting forward the “Line of Succession” argument in the Supreme Court in 2012 in General VK Singh’s case.
The Retired Defence Officers Association (RDAO) was compelled to return to the Supreme Court with a contempt petition against the Union of India. Sharma was still the Defence Secretary when notice was served on him ; however, this did not prevent the government from appointing him as the country’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), a constitutional post that demands integrity and character of the highest order. He has now been summoned by the Supreme Court through a contempt notice and ordered to personally attend all hearings till the contempt petition is finally decided.
If this is not outrageous enough, the “One Rank One Pension” (OROP) issue should be even more of an eye-opener. OROP is a long-standing demand of retired services personnel, based on irrefutable logic and equity. Every government and political party has paid it lip-service. The present dispensation in Raisina Hill has been notoriously reluctant to accept it and has not even bothered to grant a proper hearing to the services personnel in the last few years. Here, too, the bureaucracy has led the politicians by their nose, producing highly inflated figures of the cost implications and also creating other imaginary phantoms to deter the cabinet. Since the principal opposition party has now publicly endorsed the concept, the Finance Minister announced an allocation of Rs 500 crore in the interim budget. This is clearly an eyewash since all estimates point to a figure of around Rs. 2500 crore (also a pittance in the GOI’s coffers) to meet the requirements of the OROP framework. AK Antony and his team are now busy conjuring up various calculations and excuses to make the Rs. 500-crore figure credible to the public. This is official skulduggery at its worst.
While all these shenanigans were taking place, the nation witnessed another appalling tragedy that befell the armed forces. The lives of two valiant Navy officers were snuffed out because their submarine was compelled to use batteries that had exhausted their service lives ... all because a few babus had not released the requisite funds for replacing them. The Navy Chief, Admiral Joshi, resigned, taking moral responsibility for the tragedy. There was not a whimper from the Defence Minister and the Defence Secretary. This brings me to the oath that young officers take when they pass out of the Indian Military Academy. When they cross the “Antim Pag”, they see the Chetwode Motto, bequeathed to us by a colonial military officer. The words proclaim quite simply: “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.” Independent India’s armed forces have admirably honoured this splendid code of conduct. The same can hardly be said of our politicians and civil administrators.
These evocative lines have a disputed origin; some attribute them to an anonymous poet and others to that arch-imperialist Kipling, who, despite his numerous other faults, wielded a fine pen when it came to non-colonial themes. All Indians who have read these words will immediately relate to the way in which our country has treated its armed forces.
To be fair, this deplorable conduct is not the fault of the ordinary citizens. The average Indian has always admired our men and women in uniform and has readily come forward at every opportunity to honour and respect the nation’s defenders. The only two groups that have formed a shabby alliance since Independence to downgrade our armed forces, disrespect them and deny them the necessary wherewithal to defend our frontiers are the politicians and the bureaucrats. The behaviour of this coterie has been so venal and egregious that the phrase neta-babu cabal is now widely accepted and used in all studies and assessments of military issues.
I genuinely believe that the Indian military is the one institution that has, to a very great extent, avoided the graft, corruption, sloth, inefficiency and treason that now constitute the DNA of our bureaucracy and polity. Certainly, the armed forces have shortcomings and deficiencies; after all, our soldiers share the genes and culture of the rest of the population and the armed forces do not live in isolation. We have had some disastrous military leaders, but they are invariably people who were favourites of the neta-babu combine, foisted on the armed forces and given undeserved boosts in the services hierarchy.
Nevertheless, the vast majority of our services personnel have been role-models as far as their commitment, dedication, honesty and valour are concerned. Whenever there has been a crisis or calamity, whether natural or defence-related, the military has come forward to serve the country without asking any questions or seeking any compensation or reward. It seems that this is what sticks in the gullets of our politicians and civil functionaries ~ that the nation has such a glorious icon, while they, themselves, are so disliked and abhorred.
There is history at work here, as in all socio-political scenarios. Since Independence, the Nehruvian-power centre was not comfortable with the military. Some analysts have attributed this to the perception that the Indian armed forces were much too colonial in their culture and traditions. Yet, the same “colonial” army saved India’s bacon both in Kashmir and in Hyderabad. It is now undisputed that Krishna Menon’s influence on Nehru also contributed to the slow rift between the country’s political leadership and the armed forces. Menon’s abrasive and quixotic method of working led to enormous resentment in the defence establishment, culminating in the Thimayya episode in 1959. The redoubtable General, who was Army Chief, could not reconcile himself to Menon’s style of working and decided to resign. Nehru successfully managed to get the good General to withdraw his resignation, on the basis of assurances that the situation would be remedied, although definitive records are not available. This was the beginning of the steady southern drift of the armed forces. The politicians and the civil services saw this, and rightly so, as the beginning of their long march to establish themselves as the uncontested leaders in the new sultanate of Delhi.
Events in Pakistan also helped the Indian political-bureaucratic establishment to downgrade (and even downsize) the armed forces at every conceivable opportunity. Nehru, aided and abetted by Krishna Menon, his faithful ideologue and companion for many decades, allowed his initial mistrust of the armed forces to become an obsession. There is now enough evidence to suggest that the Union government in the late 1950s, till the Chinese debacle in 1962, was always looking over its shoulders to spot any chances of an army coup in the Pakistani mould.
Taking the cue from their political bosses, the civil services, led by the IAS-IPS combine started their sniping campaign to deny services personnel their legitimate benefits and humiliate them in every possible manner.
The two wars of 1965 and 1971 provided temporary respite to our defenders. By bringing considerable honour and glory to the country, the services thought they had earned the right to be respected and looked after. This was not to be. The babu-neta coterie was soon back to its old games. Here, I must add an important caveat that is necessary in the interest of objectivity. Many of the services chiefs and senior brass were also not strong enough or adequately vigilant when the forces were being downgraded and humiliated. Too many Chiefs of Staff were glad to accept plum post-retirement postings and assignments that allowed them to retain their earlier life-styles.
We have to fast-forward to the last decade, in order to have a full picture of the chicanery and venality of the Indian political establishment towards the Republic’s defenders at the present time. The first instance is the “Rank Pay” case, the origins of which lay in an obvious anomaly in the report of the 4th Pay Commission, whose recommendations went into effect on 1 January 1986. After years of litigation, the matter was decided by the Supreme Court in September 2012. Instead of implementing the order of the country’s highest court, the babus changed it surreptitiously and illegally, so as to deprive retired defence personnel of a major chunk of benefits. The Defence Secretary, under whose watch this egregious violation was committed, was Shashi Kant Sharma, who had earlier gained notoriety by putting forward the “Line of Succession” argument in the Supreme Court in 2012 in General VK Singh’s case.
The Retired Defence Officers Association (RDAO) was compelled to return to the Supreme Court with a contempt petition against the Union of India. Sharma was still the Defence Secretary when notice was served on him ; however, this did not prevent the government from appointing him as the country’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), a constitutional post that demands integrity and character of the highest order. He has now been summoned by the Supreme Court through a contempt notice and ordered to personally attend all hearings till the contempt petition is finally decided.
If this is not outrageous enough, the “One Rank One Pension” (OROP) issue should be even more of an eye-opener. OROP is a long-standing demand of retired services personnel, based on irrefutable logic and equity. Every government and political party has paid it lip-service. The present dispensation in Raisina Hill has been notoriously reluctant to accept it and has not even bothered to grant a proper hearing to the services personnel in the last few years. Here, too, the bureaucracy has led the politicians by their nose, producing highly inflated figures of the cost implications and also creating other imaginary phantoms to deter the cabinet. Since the principal opposition party has now publicly endorsed the concept, the Finance Minister announced an allocation of Rs 500 crore in the interim budget. This is clearly an eyewash since all estimates point to a figure of around Rs. 2500 crore (also a pittance in the GOI’s coffers) to meet the requirements of the OROP framework. AK Antony and his team are now busy conjuring up various calculations and excuses to make the Rs. 500-crore figure credible to the public. This is official skulduggery at its worst.
While all these shenanigans were taking place, the nation witnessed another appalling tragedy that befell the armed forces. The lives of two valiant Navy officers were snuffed out because their submarine was compelled to use batteries that had exhausted their service lives ... all because a few babus had not released the requisite funds for replacing them. The Navy Chief, Admiral Joshi, resigned, taking moral responsibility for the tragedy. There was not a whimper from the Defence Minister and the Defence Secretary. This brings me to the oath that young officers take when they pass out of the Indian Military Academy. When they cross the “Antim Pag”, they see the Chetwode Motto, bequeathed to us by a colonial military officer. The words proclaim quite simply: “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.” Independent India’s armed forces have admirably honoured this splendid code of conduct. The same can hardly be said of our politicians and civil administrators.
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