TREAT THEM WELL
On the most moving lines ever written is not found in a book but on an epitaph or the writing on a gravestone in Kohima. The lines will even the dispassionate of citizens. It reads
When You Go Home, Tell Them of Us and Say,
For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today
The words are attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds, an Englishman who lived between 1875 to 1958. It describes how those who defended India from the attack of the Japanese felt while laying down their lives for the same of nation. This couplet speaks about how the persons staffing the frontiers of the nation do not think twice to give up their lives to protect those who are living inside its borders.
A world without war is an ideal state. A boon, which every pacifist of every generation, has been seeking for. Alas, it is not to be. It is good to believe in one’s neighbours but it is better to be on guard too. The lines attributed to Oliver Cromwell,
Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry!"
holds good for every country.
Freedom, safety and comfort enjoyed by those within the borders come at a price. A price so precious that it is to be remembered as long as the freedoms are protected. In an ordered civilised society, the direction is given by the legislature; the implementation of such direction is with the executive and the power to check any abuse by either lies with the court. All these can exist only if the Jawan gives up his comfort and family behind and takes up the lonely vigil on unfriendly turf surrounded by hostile environment. India takes pride in wresting control of the highest battlefield in the world, the Siachen. It is siachen that more soldiers die due to the hostile environs than to the enemy ammunition. As long as the jawan is in active service, he is well looked after. After spending the prime of his life in such environs, when he returns to his country to hang up his boots and seek for peace, he is rudely told to forget his dreams.
The case of Captian C.S. Sidhu, a retired short commissioned officer is one such. This officer from Punjab lost his right arm, while on duty, on the high altitudes on 21st of November 1970. On discharge from active service, the least he would have expected is a few thousands to keep his head above the water. The country repaid its debt to this officer by granting him Rs. 1000.00, yes, a princely sum of rupees one thousand only, per month toward pension. When he moved the court and was granted his rightful due, the Union of India decided to take the matters to the Supreme Court of India.
An institution, which has been structured to tower over the others of its class, in the other parts of the world. An institution, perched far away from many part of the country, and if one may add, steadfastly refusing to come closer, facing the effects of docket explosion, is unfortunately constrained to shoo away litigants from its doors at a rate faster Virender Sewag cracks his cricket tons. When the Union Challenged the order of the Punjab and Haryana High court granting pension to this officer, it faced a bouncer, more deadly than the one seen on the cricket field. A bench consisting of Markandeya Katju and A.K. Patnaik JJ are said to have remarked
“If a person goes to any part of Delhi and sits for begging, he will earn Rs 1000 every day and you are offering a pittance of Rs 1000 per month for a man who fought for the country in the high altitudes and whose arm was amputated? “Is this the way you treat those brave army officers? It is unfortunate that you are treating them like beggars. ”
There is a lot of acidity in the words. Words have their limitations but it should be remembered these words are no less important than those found in the Kohima graveyard.
In the United States of America, a veteran of the army is respected everywhere he goes. President Abraham Lincoln remembered them in his second inaugural address to the nation. He exhorted the nation to treat the veterans in an exemplary manner. He said, it is the duty of the United States
To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan.
The government has a separate department looking after the interest of those who have been in the armed forces. It is the called the Department of Veterans Affairs. Similarly, the United Kingdom has dedicated a day, the 11th of November as Remembrance Day. In Russia, there is of couples visiting a war memorial on the day of their marriage. New Zealand declared 2006, the 90th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign during the first world war, as the year of the veteran. Singapore, a country small than Tamil Nadu has taken good of its armed forces. Their potential is used in national building. It is an unwritten rule that when a wounded veteran enters a public transport system in Europe, those sitting rise and give up their seat for the same of a person who has lost his limbs in the cause of his nation. A similar tradition existed in the Madras Bar too, when the seniors enter the court hall, the junior stand up and offer their seats. The latter would assume his chair only if the former refuses to sit. Like the nation, which has forgotten its soldiers, this tradition too, has unfortunately been forgotten.
It is with great anguish that one sees a brave solider walking up to the dais and giving up his medals and decoration, which he proudly received a few decades ago because the nation refuses to pay them well. The armed forces have been demanding “one rank one pay” for a very long time. Due to a very queer logic of service law, which the armed forces alone suffer from, a person holding the same rank will draw a different salary from his colleague. Consequently, the pension received by two persons of the same rank will be different because they retire at different points to time. An IPS officer or an IAS officer of the same cadre has the same pay. Closer home, a puisne judge who has just about to retire would be on the same pay scale as the one most recently appointed. These rules do not apply for the armed forces. Their demand sounds reasonable to every one other than those who actually matter. If it were a question of money alone, all that the jawans would have to do is to, receive pecuniary advantage from the nation’s enemy. They did not, they are not and they will not do so because honour does not have a price at all. The price that the unknown jawans and officers are paying is the lack of a proper salary. They know of no better way than to give the medals received by them. The army loathes to fight in an internal insurgency because they are taught shoot-to-kill and not to control an unruly mob. Even in acute cases of law and order, the armed forces refuse to step in because if they were to shoot they will be killing the very citizens they have sworn to protect.
The father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi observed in a different context,
A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.
Would you not agree, if one has the audacity to add to these words, one may very humbly say,
A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members and its armed forces ?
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