Paying lip-service to the sacrifices of our soldiers and the military

There is conventional wisdom and then there is the truth -- and as the Chinese love to say, seek truth from facts. The conventional wisdom asserts that Prime Minister Narendra Modi loves soldiers and will go to any length to back the armed forces. The impression generated is that there hasn’t been another leader who has cared more for the soldiers and loved the military more. It flows from Modi’s hyper-nationalist rhetoric and his image of a populist strongman, who would have a natural affinity for masculine pursuits of warfare and its exponents. The popular narrative is buttressed by some Hindi films, OTT web series, YouTube stars and television documentaries – even if you discount the onslaught of the infamous IT cell on social media – that emanate from a specific ideological outlook feeding on a partisan political agenda.

The facts are somewhat different and most starkly obvious in Manipur, the sensitive border state that has been aflame for six months despite being ruled by, in Modi’s parlance, a “double engine” government since 2017. That the PM has no time for the state, which has destabilising effects on the whole region, is ominous. But we are examining a different question here: the treatment of soldiers. Meitei mobs and militia groups -- with tacit, if not overt, support of the BJP state government -- have been targeting the Indian Army and the Assam Rifles with no consequences so far. A militant who killed 18 Indian soldiers in an ambush in 2016 was released by the soldiers under pressure from local crowds organised by Meira Paibi where a BJP MLA was reportedly present. Meitei groups and BJP leaders have issued statements targeting Assam Rifles, which is led by army officers at all levels. They have held placards with slogans such as “Go back Assam Rifles” and “Stop using Indian security forces against Meitei”.

These groups had the audacity to meet Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and demand withdrawal of Assam Rifles from the state. The BJP Chief Minister assured Meira Paibi that Assam Rifles would indeed be withdrawn. The state cabinet ordered the replacement of Assam Rifles with the local police to man a crucial border checkpoint.

It doesn’t end there. There are videos showing Manipur Police pointing weapons at soldiers and threatening to shoot them. The state police have filed FIRs against Assam Rifles soldiers for shielding Kuki “narco-terrorists” after the Meitei-dominated police was stopped from going to Kuki areas. Neither have the FIRs been withdrawn till date nor has the state government been publicly censured by the Centre so far. This kind of contempt for soldiers has not been seen in independent India in any state, that too without any consequences for those disrespecting and dishonouring the army.

Manipur has a BJP government, and Modi happens to be the all-powerful leader of the party. The CM and his government cannot remain in their seat even for a day if Modi doesn’t want that. But no marching orders have been issued. Evidently, a strong leader like Modi doesn’t care for how our soldiers have been treated by his party’s government in Manipur.

The Modi government’s record on many sensitive issues related to soldiers is no better. Take the case of disability pension for soldiers. In 2016, based on suspicious data provided to the 7th Pay Commission, disability benefits of the military were reduced. After protests, a committee of secretaries deprecated the reduction and restored the benefits with the Union cabinet’s approval. In 2023, the same data has been used again to strike at death and disability benefits of soldiers, giving uniformed personnel even lower benefits as “impairment relief” than their civilian counterparts in the government.

In the past, if a disability was endured or aggravated due to military service, disability pension was extended to ex-servicemen unless it was caused due to their own negligence. This was irrespective of the area of posting where the incident occurred. The Supreme Court had upheld the provision on numerous occasions. Personnel of the central armed police forces are also entitled to those benefits. In the new rules, the invalid pension is applicable to soldiers who have completed 10 years of service, a condition that was removed for civilian government employees in January 2019.

Another example is the recruitment of soldiers on a short-term contractual basis under the Agnipath scheme on fixed payment and no pensionary benefits. When an Agniveer (short-term contractual soldier) recently died in an operational area in Siachen, it brought to light the grave anomaly in the death/disability benefits of those recruited under the new scheme. Unlike regular soldiers, his family was not entitled to any pension. Ironically, as advocate Navdeep Singh highlighted, the family of a temporary trainee civil employee, even if s/he died in an accident on getting drunk while on leave or by suicide, would be entitled to family pension, but not the family of this Agniveer Battle Casualty in Siachen.

These are the more obvious examples, but there are many others. The Modi government did not do the 5-year OROP fixation for retired soldiers in 2019 and, despite being compelled by the Supreme Court, has delayed the payment of arrears. The battles over recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission and non-functional upgradation were also fought with the same government, without much success.

Unless the senior military brass miraculously develops a spine and the mainstream Indian media starts doing journalism instead of government propaganda, soldiers should be prepared for more setbacks to their status, standing and rights under the current regime. But there is something that the military community can also do. If it does not wish to be taken for granted, it should not become the captive vote or propaganda arm of any leader or party. That’s the power they hold in a democracy.