View from ground level on surgical strike by MoD on the Armed forces: Half Baked Disability Pension
Reading the new Policy on the Disability Pension to the Armed Forces, men in and out of Uniform have been appalled by the sheer evil that went into its conception, framing and promulgation!
It is nothing less than a Surgical Strike by the Ministry of Defence with radar guidance provided by a half baked, totally motivated and convoluted report prepared by CAG, a so called highest level defender of the Bharat ka Khajana.
A lot of talk had been going on for quite some time on how the Ex Servicemen were a ‘burden to the exchequer’ and how the Pension Bill was a drain on the Defence Budget. In that case just remove the Army / Navy and Air Force Acts and replace them with one of the current Acts applicable to any of the Central Paramilitary Forces.
Thereafter make all other rules applicable to them also applicable to the Armed Forces, including all pay, allowances and pension too. ….ONE INDIA, ONE FORCE ACT, ONE RULE & ONE ALLOWANCES. Period. Problem solved, khajan safe.
A country which boasts of galloping Forex reserves, catapulting GDP, Surplus GST and Tax collections which were breaking records month after month, a country that could disburse tens of thousands of crores of freebies to errant farmers, people of Turkey and give generous grants in aid to Sri Lanka, was being brought down to its knees by the Disability Element of the Defence Pensions. So much so, a poorly crafter CAG report was trotted out to show how concerned people were at that level. Whether the CAG had locu standi to comment who should get and who should not was completely brushed under!
After apparent due consideration, this Policy was issued, conveniently signed by a minion in the Department of Ex Serviceman Welfare(🤬).
In about 181 pages of twisted logic and devilish semantics, all it does, apart from other minor calculation variations, is two things:-
One, it changes the name of Disability Element of the Pension to ‘Impairment Relief’.
By this innocuous looking change, it does nothing but remove the Disability Element which was in the Income Tax Act. The Nation had bestowed a tax exemption to all soldiers who incur a disability during his/her service as a mark of respect and gratitude. This renaming effectively removes the term and makes this Disability Pension taxable…
Two, by calling it Relief, it ceases to be a part of pension and hence the widow is deprived of this small extra money that she used to get, because her husband was injured in his line of duty…
In effect, no saving to the exchequer has been made nor was it, I suspect ever intended. All this talk was merely done to deprive a benefit that grateful Nation had bestowed on its soldiers for sustaining an injury in his line of duty.
That this has happened in Mr Rajnath Singh’s watch is sad. He will go down as one of the most regressive Defence Ministers, that we have ever had.
Even AK Anthony, who smothered the Defence Ministry for a decade, never did such a deep stab in the back to his soldiers. This is being done by a MoD where now we have a department of Military Affairs too. The Secretary DMA must at once review this new Policy and straight away have it put up to the Cabinet Committee Security.
More, unkind is the UNACTION of the Armed Forces officers, in the AG’s and other branches who have seem to have surgery done on their vocal chords. They must up the cudgel on behalf of those in Uniform against the twisted rationale of the Department of Defence and Department of Ex Servicemen Welfare and of course the CAG whose minions thought this out and framed it. They must be sitting smug in their offices, knowing that they have shown the Forces their true place!
The upper most hierarchy in both the politicos entrusted with Higher Defence Management of India and also the Military will also be equally blamed for cutting down the ESM to proper size.
