Monday, July 25, 2011

Sad Sign of the Times!

Things have come to a dangerous pass.
Appalling already was the scheme of events in our nation, with veterans and the government in a logjam and protests related to pensionary anomalies reaching the streets.
As most of us know, the Supreme Court had recently recalled its orders related to the constitution of the Armed Forces Grievances Redressal Commission. What follows is this official press release by the Ministry of Defence almost celebrating the recalling of the orders, commemorating the victory of the Ministry of Defence over veterans and stating that the poor widow in the case had ‘incorrectly represented’ facts before the Court, while actually there was no such observation of ‘incorrect representation’ by the Hon’ble Apex Court itself in its orders.
Does an official press release such as this behove a government agency ? Is the recalling of a judicial order official-news material, if that be so, then all departments should regularly issue press releases every single day on the hundreds of cases decided daily involving them, this way or that way.
While on the surface, this press release may seem to be innocuous, but lying beneath is a thought process that is thoroughly and distastefully disgusting – the thought process that defence veterans are adversaries of the MoD. It is an MoD Vs Veterans state of mind. Otherwise, why would there be a celebratory official PIB press release on the recalling of an order that was so dear to the hearts of the defence community ? Can this be expected in any developed democracy ? Can we imagine the Department of Defence of the US or the Ministry of Defence of the UK issuing a press release celebrating the recalling of a Court order favouring veterans ?
This simply shows that the Department of Ex-Servicemen (sic) welfare (sic again) is on an auto-pilot mode with no control of the political executive. A celebration like this shows the sick minds working overtime deriving sadistic pleasure every time a veteran suffers. Though not in favour of the commission from the outset, the Defence Minister would never have allowed a press release like this, even the Secretary Ms Neelam Nath would not allow this – but in all probability they do not know what is happening under their noses since running the roost are lower level officials who continue to be jealous of the Re 1/- discount availed by defence personnel on each Hamam Sabun ki tikki from the CSD. And these are the people who remain faceless but dangerously venomous scuttling each and every move made for the welfare of serving and retired personnel – including ones initiated and approved in principle by the top brass of the Ministry.
Once again, Hail the note maker. Hail the reverse pay commission.