The following message is of importance to all Defence Services Pensioners/ Family Pensioners.
Please do read.
In case you have not yet received the latest PPO, please do follow up and send the necessary information to PCDA, Allahabad soonest.
For your ease, the information asked by them is attached as MSWord file to this email.
Please convey this to the maximum number of pensioners etc whom you may know, thanks.
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DIAV COMMUNICATION: 03 Our Esteemed Veterans and Next of Kin,
1. There have been a few changes in the pension policy post implementation of 6 CPC. One major change is, doing away with weightage and calculation of pension as per rank and qualifying service. Post 6 CPC the pensions have been revised many times i.e in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014 (as OROP).
2. To cater for these changes PCDA (Pension) Allahabad undertook “Project Sangam” and printed fresh corrigendum PPO’s for all pre-6CPC retirees so that they get the correct rate of pension. As per PCDA (P) Allahabad they have printed and dispatched approx 14 lakh ‘Sangam PPO’s’ to all pre-2006 pensioners (including widows & NOKs).
3. Our interaction on ground with pensioners reveal that many of the pensioners do not have this PPO which is generated post 2009 with them. If you do not have this PPO which is issued after 2009; please act as follows.
(a) JCOs, ORs and NOKs. Please write to respective Record Offices for getting a copy of your Sangam PPO’s.(b) Officers and NOKs.
Visit & CLICKwww.pcdapension.nic.in. On the front page at the bottom, you shall find a scroll giving some details. Above the scroll you shall see in red fonts written ‘Sangam Project PPO in respect of Commissioned Officer’. Please click on this and fill in the details and send to cda-albd@nic.in to get Sangam PPO’s.
Please Note that PPO’s are your most priced documents and PPO’s are to be preserved. The toll free helpline number of PCDA (P) Allahabad is 18001805325.
Warm Regards Dir Outreach DIAV
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Nec temere nec timide!
Wg Cdr CK Sharma
Treasurer, UFESM/IESM
22nd NDA :: 84th PC
The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.Dante
Form
Please Send the following information on the PCDA (Pension) email id i.e cda-albd@nic.in to enable us to notify / dispatch PPO under Sangam Project :-
S.N
Details
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1.
Original PPO Number
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2.
Name of the Officer / Employee
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3.
Name of Family Pensioner
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4.
Regimental / IC Number
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Date of retirement
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6.
Date of Death of officer / employee (in case of Family Pensioner )
The Indus is one of the oldest and longest rivers in Asia. Though it originated in the Tibetan Plateau in China, much of it flows across Pakistan.
Over the centuries, a wide variety of cultures, languages and religions have sprung up on both sides of the Indus.
Five thousand years from the moment the first major civilisation emerged along the Indus, till the creation of Pakistan in 1947, various religions and cultures have thrived here: Animism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Islam. Each of these religions were indigenised.
Even though Islam has become the major faith along the Indus in the last 500 years, the dynamic history of the region has kept cultures largely heterogeneous and varied. A commonality was not attempted on the basis of a homogenous or monolithic idea of faith and culture here.
Rather those preaching Islam in the region — especially from the 12th century onward — absorbed existing cultural traditions that had evolved for thousands of years along the river, and, in turn, expressed them through the more esoteric strands of Islam (Sufism).
Historically, the strand of Sufism which emerged on the banks of Indus (especially in Punjab and all the way across Sindh), consciously eschewed religious orthodoxy and, at times, even rebelled against it.
The poetry and music that emerged from Sufi circles along the river is therefore largely a result of the theological, political and social tensions between Sufis and the orthodox ulema and clerics.
This is still the case, as we shall see while reviewing a series of songs related to the historical Sufi tradition along the Indus.
Bulleh Ki Jana Mein Kon
Video: Bulleh Ki Jana by Sain Zahoor
One of the most well-known poems by a Sufi saint in the region is Bulleh Ki Jana Mein Kon (Bulleh, to me I am unknown).
Penned by the 18th century Sufi saint and poet, Bulleh Shah, for over 200 years, it has been used as a popular deterrent against the ‘orthodox’ ulema who have continued to be critical of the strands of Islam that have developed (over centuries) in cultures on both sides of the Indus.
Bulleh Shah was born in Southern Punjab in 1680 and largely preached there in the Punjabi language.
He wrote mostly in Punjabi because as opposed to Persian (which was the language of the Muslim Mughal court at the time), Punjabi was a 'common man’s language'. He also wrote in Sariki (spoken in South Punjab) and in Sindhi.
The poem is a hurtling lament against religious orthodoxy in which Shah distances himself from the layers of belief that organised religions are wrapped with. Instead, he comes out looking for something which is free of cultural, political and religious prejudices and perceptions.
This is how, he believes, he can discover true humanity and consequently the Almighty. However, in the end, he realises that by rejecting existing theological, political and social labels, all he is left with is the question of who he is.
To him, this nothingness may as well be everything which humans should become (to eschew bigotry and divisions).
The nothingness (in the context of traditional Sufi imagery and concepts) is a seamless, almost inexplicable, void in which the presence of the Almighty can be felt. It has no room for man-made prejudices.
English translation
Bulleh, to me, I am not known Not a believer inside the mosque, Nor a pagan of false rites, Not the pure amongst the impure, Neither Moses, nor the Pharaoh… Bulleya! to me, I am not known Not in the holy Vedas am I, Nor in opium, neither in wine, Not in the drunkard’s intoxicated craze, Neither awake, nor in a sleeping daze, Bulleya! to me, I am not known In happiness, nor in sorrow am I Neither clean, nor a filthy mire, Not from water, nor from earth, Neither fire, nor from air is my birth. Bulleya! To me, I am not known Not an Arab, nor Punjabi Neither Hindi, nor Nagauri Hindu, Turk, nor Peshawari, Nor do I live in Nadaun Bulleya! to me, I am not known Differences of faith, I have not known, From Adam and Eve, I am not born I am not the name I assume Not in stillness, nor on the move Bulleya! to me, I am not known I am the first, I am the last None other have I ever known I am the wisest of them all Bulleh! do I stand alone? Bulleya! I am not known.
Asaan Ishq Namaz Jadoun Neeti Aye
Video: Asaan Ishq Namaz Jadoun Neeti by Abida Parveen
Another popular kalam (poem) by Bulleh Shah is Asaan Ishq Namaz Jadoun Neeti Aye (Ever since I resolved to say the prayer of love).
Written in Sariki, it is by far his most pointed indictment of the criticism he received from those accusing him of ‘distorting faith’.
He directly addresses his critics and taunts them for always looking at others and never within their own selves. He also lambasts them for finding spirituality and the Almighty in books, rituals and places of worship, without looking for Him where he really resides i.e. in one’s heart.
He dismisses the clergy as being worthless even when compared to a rooster because at least the rooster does his duty of waking up people (instead of stifling them and encouraging them to remain asleep).
English translation (excerpt)
You may have read thousands of books, But have you ever read yourself? Whereas they all run towards mosques and temples, They never enter their own hearts. Your fight against Satan is futile; Because you have to first fight your own desires. You seek the one in heaven, But you never try to reach the one who resides with you. Ever since I have resolved to say the prayer of love, I have forgotten the mosque and temple. The roosters are better than the clerics; For at least they wake friends who are asleep… A wine-seller is better than a moneylender, At least he serves a drink to the thirsty. Oh, Bulleh, make friends with your critics, Before they beat you up. Cleric, leave those books alone, You just have shallow knowledge. You need to cleanse yourself from the wines of passion, Your exterior and interior are both stained. You continue to enter places of worship, But when will you enter your own heart?
Laal Meri Pat
Video: Laal Meri Pat by Noor Jahan
Laal Meri Pat has been around for centuries. It was a poem dedicated to the 13th century Sufi saint, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.
Lal Shahbaz was born in Afghanistan in 1149 CE. As a young man, he studied religion under various scholars before leaving his home and visiting various countries. He eventually arrived and settled in Sehwan — an ancient city in what is the present-day province of Sindh.
Shahbaz began preaching a highly esoteric strand of Islam here, and almost immediately attracted devotees from the region’s Muslim and Hindu communities.
Shahbaz was a rebel and refused to submit to the dictates of the conservative clergy. He mastered various languages, including Sindhi, Pashto, Turkish, Arabic and Sanskrit.
He was known for his nonchalant and ‘possessed’ mannerisms. He died in Sehwan and was buried there. It is also where his shrine stands.
Amir Khusro (a poet and scholar in the court of India’s 14th century Delhi Sultanate), after being moved by the stories of Lal Shahbaz, wrote a poem celebrating the life of the saint.
18th century Sufi saints, Bulleh Shah and Waris Shah (from Punjab), added some verses to Khusro’s poem. By the 19th century, roving fakirs (spiritual vagabonds) were singing it outside the shrine of Lal Shahbaz.
Sung in Punjabi, the poem/song, though already well-known in Punjab and Sindh, was given a more mainstream make-over in the 1960s by composer, Master Ashiq Hussain.
The words of the song were updated by the tragic poet, Saghar Siddiqui, before it was offered to famous Pakistani vocalist, Noor Jahan to sing.
It was this version of the song which became the most popular; and a modern component of Punjab’s folk music realm. Later, it was covered by various famous singers of both Pakistan and India.
The song is a whirling tribute to Lal Shahbaz Qalandar. It is often sung with reckless abandon, as if in a trance, and to the beat of the South Asian Sufi music genre called the dhamal.
The song is a particular favorite of the saint’s women devotees, who mostly belong to the working class and peasant communities of Punjab and Sindh, and find the words and music highly liberating and healing.
English translation
Oh Laal, please keep my matters straight; Long live Laal! From Sindh and of Sehwan, Comes the generous Shahbaz Qalandar … In every step, I trade the path of Qalandar; Ali (RA) is in my every breath… Four of your lamps burn forever, I've come to burn a fifth one; Long live Laal! Oh my mentor, your shrine is high, Songs are played in sync with the clocks… Long live Laal! Ghanan Ghanan(!) is the sound of your drum, The clocks tick along with it… Long live Laal…!
Haye Kambakht tu Ney Pi Hi Nahi & Tum Aik Ghorak Dhanda Ho
14th century poet, Amir Khusro used elements from ancient Persian, Arabic, Turkish and Indian music to create a distinct music genre called the qawaali. The qawaali quickly became attached to the music performed at Sufi shrines in India.
By the 16th century, the qawaali had developed into a bona fide Sufi devotional music form, in which odes to the Almighty and divine Muslim personalities were sung to the beat of rhythmic and hypnotic beats.
Till the mid-20th century, Qawaali remained confined to Sufi shrines in the Punjab and in some other areas of South Asia.
However, from the late 1950s onward, it was introduced to a wider urban audience in Pakistan by qawaali singers (qawaals) such as the Sabri Brothers and Aziz Mian.
One way they did this was by delivering their qawaalis in Urdu. This was also when the Sabri Brothers and Aziz Mian incorporated modern poetry, but which was delivered in the established imagery and ethos of the traditional qawaali.
For example, Aziz Mian would often address modern-day issues through Sufi idioms and concepts first developed in the poetry and songs of ancient Sufi poets of the region.
One such idiom was of the inner conflict a Sufi poet often experienced in his attempt to achieve a unique unity with God. In the process, he annihilates (fana) his ego which keeps a person anchored to the trivialities of everyday life.
The union with God (a metaphor for a clear understanding and awareness of His existence) was explained as an intoxicated state which the Sufi poets likened with the effects of sweet wine.
However, the union in this context was not the end of it. Because after becoming strikingly aware of God’s presence, many Sufi poets would still find Him to be perplexing and unable to be fully grasped by the limited capacities of the human mind.
This is when many poets would stretch their poems and turn them into imagined conversations with the Almighty, exposing their conflicting emotions made up of awe as well as anger; ecstasy as well as desolation.
Aziz Mian mastered this aspect of the qawaali. But his frustration was more to do with his immediate surroundings in which he was often criticised for being violent and too admiring of intoxicants, especially alcohol.
In 1975, when the Sabri Brothers mocked his ‘perpetually intoxicated state’, and style of qawaali, Aziz Mian retaliated by penning a long qawaali which sardonically hit back at his critics.
This was Haye kambakht tu ne pi hi nahi (Oh, unfortunate soul, you never even drank). In it, he begins by proudly owning up to his liking for intoxicants, taunting his opponents that they were criticising something they had never even experienced.
He then moves on by suggesting that those who like delivering lectures on morals and still commit misdeeds were worse than drunkards, and thus were hypocrites.
As the qawaali goes deeper towards a whirling climax, Aziz Mian suggests that he was intoxicated by his love of the Almighty; an intoxication which his detractors can’t even imagine or achieve because they were shallow. He damns them for being myopic and simplistic in their understanding of his words.
Video: Gorak Dhanda (with English translation) by Nusrat Fateh Ali
One of the most intense examples of a Sufi poem which deals with the conflict and frustration of a man who is left perplexed by God even after reaching the state of ego annihilation was penned by Naz Khialvi — a poet from the city of Toba Tek Singh in the Punjab. He titled the poem Tum aik gorak dhanda ho (You are puzzle).
In the late 1980s, Khialvi gave the poem to the famous qawaal, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who took almost two years to compose it the way he thought it deserved to be delivered.
The poem presents God as a perplexing paradox, putting the poet in a state of both awe as well as frustration because even after understanding some aspects of the Almighty, the poet is baffled by those aspects that go the other way, often replacing (within the seeker) euphoria with bewilderment.
The poet pleads that he has every right to question the paradox because he was completely in love with an entity which draws him closer, but does not allow itself to be fully comprehended.
Tarrin Paunda
Video: Tarrin Paunda by Allan Fakir
Tarrin Paunda (Plant) is one of the most haunting songs in the vast reservoir of Sindh’s ancient Sufi music genre. It was first recorded by Allan Fakir (for Radio Pakistan) in the late 1970s.
Allan was the quintessential Sindhi folk singer, who had mastered the art of expressing the poetry of ancient Sufi saints who had settled along the River Indus in the arid province of Sindh.
Tarrin Paunda is often mistaken as being the work of 18th century Sufi saint, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai. But it was actually authored by Shaikh Ayaz.
As a young man, Ayaz was a Marxist who went on to become a close colleague of the ‘father of Sindhi nationalism’, GM Syed (before they fell out in the 1980s).
Ayaz’s most prolific period as a writer and poet was between the early 1960s and late 1970s. And it was in the 1970s that he penned Tarrin Paunda, which was inspired by the mesmerising poetic style of Sufi saint, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai.
The poem is about a man’s hope to one day meet his beloved when his natural surroundings will be in full bloom.
He sings (in Sindhi): ‘When red roses will bloom, then we will meet; When those birds will return and we will make their sounds, then we will meet; When the tears will move down the cheeks like pearls, then we will meet; Those days of parting were a mistake of youth, so we will meet when there are roses in bloom…’
The poem was written by Ayaz to be sung in a hypnotic manner, as if the singer was blissfully caught inside an eternal loop of both hope and despair; love and melancholy.
Allan Fakir achieved that perfectly.
Ya Qurban
Video: Ya Qurban by Zarsanga
In the north along the River Indus, Sufism did not have the kind of impact that it had in the Punjab and Sindh. But it was still present there in a slightly different and more earthly form.
For example, regarding Sufi music and poetry, poets in Sindh and Punjab saw Indus as a fluid mystical pathway which carried men and women towards an esoteric realm, whereas in the north, or more so, in what is now KP, poets saw the river as a blessed source of nature that replenished the land on which people cultivated their crops, grazed their cattle and moved to and fro as tribes.
That’s why poetry on Pashtun folk culture is often about a beloved land and/or the memory of it by those who had to leave it due to various economic or political reasons.
Some of the most moving poems/songs in this respect were written by roving Pashtun gypsies, one of whom went on to become a singing legend.
Pashtu folk singer, Zarsanga was born in 1946 into a nomadic tribe in Lakki Marwat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The tribe’s main vocation was singing, so Zarsanga began to sing at an early age.
She would travel with her tribe all over Pakistan, and even to Afghanistan, where the tribe would settle in the summers. By the time she got married in 1965 at the age of 19, she was already a famous singer among the Pakhtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Most of the songs that she sang were written by the common people of her nomadic tribe. The songs spoke about the joys and tragedies of the lives of Pakhtun gypsies.
The non-Pashto sections of the country discovered her when she began to record songs for Radio Pakistan in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
One such song, ‘Ya Qurban’, was regularly played by the station. It was penned by a fellow gypsy (in the 1960s), and is a longing for the stretch of land on which gypsy tribes moved to and fro, and for those who have travelled far away from these lands and their loved ones.
Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com. He has also authored a book on the social history of Pakistan called, End of the Past.
He tweets @NadeemfParacha
The views expressed by this writer and commenters below do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
The report said that most of the decisions are not implemented on the flimsy pretext of being against ‘government policy’.
Data accessed by The Indian Express shows, that in cases pertaining to Army, out of a total of 10,645 cases pending in various benches of AFT as on July 1, 2015, as many as 4790 were execution applications.
indianexpress.com
Delay in implementation of the orders of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) benches across the country is resulting in an increasing number of serving and retired defence services personnel and their family members filing contempt petitions asking for implementation of the earlier orders of AFT.
Data accessed by The Indian Express shows, that in cases pertaining to Army, out of a total of 10,645 cases pending in various benches of AFT as on July 1, 2015, as many as 4790 were execution applications. Out of this data, in case of Chandigarh bench, out of a total of 7,117 pending cases, 4390 are execution/contempt applications which means 61.68 per cent of total pending cases are execution/contempt applications alone. A committee formed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has also commented adversely on the tendency on part of government departments under the MoD not to implement the decisions till a contempt petition is filed. The committee, whose report was de-classified recently, observed that non-implementation of orders in time leads to not only frustration amongst litigants and a bad name to the organisation but also in massive outgo of taxpayers’ money and burden on the exchequer by way of costs, interests and avoidable payments to Government Counsel for multiple dates of hearings. SOME ONE IS MAKING MONEY ON THE MISERY OF SOLDIERS IN THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
1. Our Relay Hunger Strike is going on smoothly and strongly at Jantar Mantar. Today is 317th day. Mrs Sudesh Goyet has been regularly on Relay Hunger Strike for 244th day. We salute her grit determination and dedication to the cause. Ex-Servicemen throughout the length and breadth of the Country have whole heartedly supported the cause by their presence and donations. 14 brave ESM had taken fast unto death and continued till 25 days to convey unhappiness of ESM countrywide with neglect of ESM by Government and denial of OROP to ESM.(preferably write their names). Volunteers who are administrating Relay Hunger Strike at Jantar Mantar, are doing an excellent job and their contribution will be remembered whenever the History of OROP will be written. Special mention will be made of the contribution of ESM of Gurdaspur who also completed RHS for 306 days alongwith JM of Delhi. Jathas from neighbouring states and NCR are holding the Relay Hunger Strike with Honour, Dignity and Respect. The supporters from across the country visit Jantar Mantar to showcase their solidarity to the cause of Soldiers and for the Profession of Arms. “Izzat-O-Insaf” slogan rents the air at Jantar Mantar many times during the day.
2. ESM Agitation per se which started on 14 June 2015 at Jantar Mantar and at many locations in the Country will continue, will be strengthened by the day till our objective of Implementation of Actual OROP is met. Unity of objectives, the cardinal principle will be adopted and adhered to. The actions and activities may however be strategized, keeping in view the response from the Govt and the existing environments.
3. We have already sent our representation to address the anomalies arising in the implementation of OROP to Justice Reddy Committee on 25 Mar 2016 through the Hon’ble RM.
This is in response to the discussion held by RM with the ESM representatives on 14 Mar 2016. Justice Reddy Committee is scheduled to submit its recommendations by 15 June 2016. As already informed to you all, we have brought out the following anomalies in the Implementation of OROP:-
·Equalization of Pensions as per the original approved definition be carried out every year instead of 5 years as per the Govt Notification dated 07 Nov 2015.
·Pensions are to be fixed at maximum of the Rank and year of service in the year instead of Average of Max and Min.
·Since the OROP is being implemented with effect from 01 Jul 2014, the base year should be 2014-2015 instead of Average of 2013.
·OROP should be implemented with effect from 01 Apr 2014 as mentioned in the Executive Order of the Govt dated 26 Feb 2014 instead of 01 Jul 2014.
·There are serious inaccuracies in the construction of Tables issued on 03.02.2016 for the fixation of pensioners. The details of inaccuracies have been brought to the Notice of Service HQs with request to forward the same to Justice Reddy Committee. We understand from the Service HQs that these inaccuracies have been brought to the notice of MoD.
·Approved definition of OROP has been given out in the Govt. Executive Order dated 26 Feb 2014. But it has been changed while transmitting to Reddy Committee, which totally destroys the soul of the OROP. This approved definition has been confirmed by Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh in the Parliament on 02 Dec 2014 and is in line which the Recommendations of Koshyari Committee. The salient point of the Govt Executive Orders and the approved definition of OROP vide Govt of India In of Def Letter No. 12 (01)/2014/D(Pen/Pol) dated 26 Feb 2014 are as under :-
(i) Finance Minister in his Interim Budget Speech on 17th February 2014 announced that the Government has accepted the principle of One Rank One Pension for the defence forces. In pursuance of this Budget announcement and the decision taken in the meeting chaired by Hon’ble Raksha Mantri on 26.02.2014, It has been decided to implement the principle of One Rank One Pension for all ranks of defence forces prospectively from the financial year 2014-15.
(ii) It was noted that “One Rank One Pension (OROP) implies that uniform pension be paid to the Armed Forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement and any future enhancement in the rates of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. This implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of the current pensioners and the past pensioners and also future enhancements in the rate of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners”
4. However, the Govt through its Notification dated 07 Nov 2015, has changed the above approved definition which totally destroys the soul of the OROP. We have already written to RM for the restoration of original definition Justice Reddy has been requested to recommend the restoration of the original approved definition. The amended definition in fact kills the very concept of OROP which is to be applicable in perpetuity.
5. We will shortly be impleading in the ongoing OROP case of Maj Gen SPS Vains Vs others and Union of India in the SC for all ranks. Senior Advocate Shri Ram Jeth Malani has very kindly consented to fight our case of implementation of Actual OROP for all ranks pro-bono.
6. The Govt through its, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Ms. Pinky Anand, on 16 Feb 2015 had stated that the Govt has sanctioned the implementation of OROP for which the Supreme Court of India gave three months time for its Implementation. Though, the Govt has implemented the OROP through its Notification dated 07 Nov 2015 and Tables issued vide letter No 12(1)/2014/D(Pen/Policy)-Part –II dated 03.02.2016, it is a diluted OROP and is NOT RPT NOT ACTUAL OROP. We will continue our struggle till Actual OROP is granted.
7. We are also filing the following cases in AFT RK Puram New Delhi:-
(a) Grant of pension equal to regular ranks for Hony ranks awarded to ESM on retirement or after retirement.
(b) Broad banding of disability pension.
(c) Arrears upto 2006 for all JCOs/OR.
(d) Reservist Pension should be increased.
8. The Print and Electronic Media has blacked out any new about our ongoing OROP Agitation. We have already brought to the Notice of Information Minister Mr. Jaitley and requested him to issue suitable directions to ensure free and fair media coverage of our Activities of our Movement. All members of Defence Fraternity and our supporters are requested to chip in and assist in coverage of News regarding our activities through Print, Electronic and Social Media platforms. Fauji kids are doing good job and we request more of the like to join in
9. There are serious and large numbers of Anomalies in the recommendations of 7the CPC. If the recommendations are approved in the present form, it will furthers degrade and downgrade the profession of Defence Forces. The Review Committee constituted by the Govt does not have any member from the Defence Forces. Even the BSF has got their member included. The three chiefs have jointly represented to the Govt and brought out 36 Anomalies in the Recommendations of 7th CPC. We the Ex-Servicemen fully support the views of our three Services Chiefs and would struggle to get our due Justice. The degradation, down gradation, ill-treatment and mistreatment of Military in status, pay pension and allowances have to stop and the status of Defence Forces in all respects as it existed on 26 Jan 1950 needs to be restored at the earliest. We will jointly and unitedly struggle to get Izzat and Insaf for the solders. We request all members of the Sainik Samaj to strongly represent to the Govt about the injustices being heaped on the Soldiers at all forums to ensure Civil Military relations are restored to the required and desired levels. Dignity & Respect of the Soldiers must be ensured by the Govt and the Nation.
10. We would request our Hon’ble PM & RM and the six MPs from the Defence Fraternity to assist in Restoring the Izzat of the Soldiers”. “Do we respect our Soldiers”? Discussion needs to be taken to every nook and corner of the country on all forums to grant the due priority to the “Profession of Arms” and the “Security of the Nation.” Our representatives in the Parliament must debate on the issue and restore the status of Armed Forces in all respects to the 26 Jan 1950 level.
11. We strongly feel that the Political Parties and the Govts of the day did not pay any attention to the Defence Forces since they thought that we, both serving and retired are spread across the Country and do not use our Vote Power. This thought had a lot to do with the neglect of defence personnel by the Political Parties.
12. We now, understand power of Vote and have carried out study and research across the country in various states. The study reveals that we have direct influence of over 6 crores Votes and our capability of opinion making is so large in villages and Tehsils that we could influence another 4 crores indirectly. This large no of voting strength can affect the election outcome of at-least 150 Parliamentary Constituencies and over 450 State Assembly Constituencies across the country.
13. Friends, we propose to utilize this potential Force of “Power of Vote”. We should, based on the interests of Sainik Samaj, use this “Power of Vote”. Each vote should be cast with care and thought. We intend to take ESM to Parliament and state assemblies to raise the voice of ESM family. We intend to now directly participate in law making rather than begging existing MPs to write laws governing ESM and armed forces. Our OROP Protest Movement since 14th June 2015 has taught us many lessons. The best outcome of the Movement has been the forging of “Unity of Objections” amongst the Sainik Samaj. It was this Unity, demonstrated on ground at Jantar Mantar and at many location across the country which has been the major factor in the implementation of OROP though it is in a Diluted form.
14. We have decided to use this “Power of Votes” in all Election in the States and Centre. We request all members of the Sainik Samaj to understand and use this “Power of Votes” for the interest and benefit of Sainik Samaj in the coming State elections.
15. We will soon be focusing on this important factor to restore our status in all respects. ESM in various states who have the interest should come forward and fight elections from Panchyat to Parliament.
16. We, however wish to clarify that no member from Governing Body of IESM will fight any Election as candidate. In case any member wishes to do so, he / she will resign before contesting the election.
17. As already announced, we will actively take part, in elections and unitedly use the “Power of Votes” in all coming State Elections with the sole aim of sending 40 to 50 ESM as Member Parliament and 30 to 40 ESM in each state assemblies to represent ESM family.
18. The false case lodged against the office bearers of IESM will be fought to its logical conclusions. We assure the Sainik Samaj once again that every paisa of the IESM Funds has been spent on the activities of the IESM, accounted for, Audit by Independent CA carried out and the withdrawal and expenses duly ratified by the General Body. Our accounts are open to all ESM to come and check them randomly.
Appeal
All members of the retired Defence Fraternity, specially our senior officers of One Star and above” and our supporters are requested to visit Jantar Mantar daily to showcase their solidarity to the cause of Soldiers.
“Hands-Heads and shoulders…………Together”
With regards,
Yours Sincerely,
Maj Gen Satbir Singh, SM (Retd)
Advisor United Front of Ex Servicemen & Chairman IESM
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