INVITE ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND SUPPORT INDIAN ARMY

He will win, who knows , when to fight and when not to fight.
He will win, who knows , how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
He will win, who knows, whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all it's ranks.
He will win, who prepared himself ,waits to take the enemy unprepared.
He will win, who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign."


Spread the word. Every invitation counts:
Invite Friends. The link is:
http://www.causes.com/posts/911531?template=bulletin_mailer%2Fposting&causes_ref=email

What the fauj and parents taught me - from the Salute magazine

Nitin A. Gokhale

Last week, a friend in the Army, reacting to my latest documentary on the endless-and thankless-war that Indian soldiers fight in Kashmir, paid a heartfelt compliment by calling me a ‘soldier-journalist’. Flattered though I was for a moment, the remark also embarrassed me no end. For I have never donned the uniform. To me soldiering is the only profession in which men and women go beyond the call of duty and therefore deserve the highest respect in the society. To me soldiers are a breed apart. In my chosen profession of journalism, this attitude is regarded as partisan. Many feel I am blind to many sins of commission and omission that the armed forces personnel seem to indulge in these days.

The charge may be partially true but I am not ashamed about it mainly because our forces are still way above the rest of the society when it comes to upholding the values of honour, teamwork, professionalism, ethics and camaraderie. But let me also confess: the biggest reason for my soft corner for the forces comes from the fact that I too am a fauji kid and sub-consciously somewhere deep down I still live by a dictum one learnt as a kid: Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou kada chana (Do your duty to the best of your ability and don’t seek rewards).

When I look back, I realise that my father, who retired as a subedar major in 1982 and with him my mother, followed this practice in their daily life and passed it to us three brothers without making a song and dance about it. Throughout my 28-year career as a professional journalist, I have been fortunate that I could follow this principle without even realising that I was practicing what my father did all his professional life. Now, wiser and little more experienced than before, I am in a position to analyse some of the reasons behind the moderate success that each of us-three brothers-have managed to achieve in our respective professions.

Adaptability, my biggest strength, has been a second nature through our growing years thanks to the frequent transfers and constantly changing schools. In the 1960s and the 1970s, ordinary soldiers - and my father was one - had a tough life in the Indian Army. They lived far from their families, toiled hard for a pittance and yet possessed a dignity that is not found in an ordinary civilian. The soldier never complained, never whined and never expected anything in return for what he did. I changed eight schools in 10 years and studied in three different mediums - English, Marathi and Hindi before entering junior college in 1978. Sub-consciously, without ever preaching to us, our parents drilled a motto into us: “Take life as it comes.” And we did.

We met the challenges head on. I remember travelling from Pune to Lekhabali in Arunachal Pradesh by train in the late 1970s. It used to take us four days and five changes at Kalyan, Allahabad, Baruani, New Bongaigaon and Rangiya before we could reach the destination. Reservations were never confirmed. Dad was never with us.

One lived by one’s wits and survived. Frequent transfers meant frequent dislocations and packings. And unlike today, there were no movers and packers in those pre-liberalisation days. So we learnt to adapt.

To be responsible for our actions. Discipline and punctuality was given.

Colleagues laugh at me when I start getting uncomfortable if I am late for an appointment. They laugh at the fact that I sleep by 10 pm and up by 5.30 am. But I know no other way. I mentioned adaptability earlier. My parents not only taught us how to adapt and accept but also practiced the principle. The biggest proof is my being a journalist. In the summer of ’83, the world was at my feet as far as my parents were concerned.

I was selected to be a flying officer in the Indian Air Force. All that remained was for me to submit my
graduation certificate by June 30 and start my training in July. As luck would have it, my graduation results were delayed by over a month. So the dream of joining the Air Force was put on hold. I had six months to kill before I could appear for another round of combined defence services exam that December.

That’s when destiny dealt a decisive, and now in retrospect, a lucky blow. The Sentinel, a Guwahati based newspaper was just starting out and was looking for trainee journalists for their sports pages. Having played all games from kabaddi to squash and from kho-kho to cricket as a child, I thought with all the cockiness of the callow youth that I could become a sports journalist, at least for a while. So just for the heck of it, I appeared for the written test that the newspaper held.

Five days later, they called me for an interview. With no expectations, I went for the interview and landed a job at a princely sum of 700 rupees. I still remember the entire sequence in my head as if it happened just yesterday. At the end of the interview that fateful afternoon, the editor asked me, “When can you join?”

My answer was, “Whenever you want.” He said, “Can you join, tonight?”

And I agreed to join that very evening. Then I became a journalist.

Of course at that time, I had no inkling that I would stay the course. I was sure I would do the job for six months and then move on. But that was not to be. As I joined the paper and started picking up the nuances of the job, I felt at home. The thrill of being part of the team that put together a newspaper for the benefit of thousands of readers can only be experienced. It can never be described in words. The duty hours were erratic. One went to office at 2 pm and never returned home before 5 am. Three months down the line I decided to remain a journalist and not to pursue the aim of becoming a fighter pilot.

My parents were aghast and crestfallen. For a junior commissioned officer in the earlier 1980s, there was no greater honour than seeing his son becoming a commissioned officer. But like a true soldier, my father
accepted my decision without rancour. All that my parents said at that time was “Excel in whatever you choose to do.” So I stuck on in Assam.

My parents moved back to Pune soon after but again luck smiled on me. Neha married me in 1988 and
continued to encourage me to take risks with life and with career. Never ever complaining that I chose to take up risky assignments touring deep into north eastern states, reported the Kargil war, the Sri Lanka conflict, when I could have played safe and remained a desk bound journo. Today those risks have paid off. I can say with a bit of immodesty that I can compete with the best in business without feeling inferior.
The urge to do better than yesterday comes naturally to the men in uniform. If I behave that way even now, it is thanks to my upbringing in a military environment. Despite all its faults and foibles, the military remains a vital part of my life for whatever I am today is thanks largely to the fauj and its ethos.

http://nitinagokhale.blogspot.com/2011/11/last-week-friend-in-army-reacting-to-my.html

6 CPC : AGONY FOR DEF OFFRS CONTINUES; ISSUE OF NFU (NON FUNCTIONAL UPGRADATION) NEEDS URGENT ATTN

1. All Defence Offrs, please be informed that Offrs of other services with whom you interact on functional basis, like MES Civ Offrs, GREF Civ Offrs, Offrs of BSF, CRPF ,ITBP, Def Accts(IDAS), Test Audit(IA&AS), Ord Factory Bd etc, will now get the salary and grade pay of Joint Secretary/ Maj Gen (GP Rs 10000/-) in 19 yrs of service, and will draw the pay of Addl Secretary to Govt of India which is equal to a Lt Gen(GP Rs 12000/-) in 32 yrs of service by virtue of their service being Organised Gp A Service.

2. The above condition has been brought about consequent to acceptance of 6 CPC recom on NFU by GoI , wherein it recommended that whenever any IAS officer of the state or joint cadre is posted at the Centre to a particular grade carrying a specific grade pay in Pay Bands PB-3 or PB-4,the officers belonging to batches of Organised Group A services that are senior by two years or more and have not been promoted so far to that particular grade would be granted the same grade on a non functional basis from the date of posting of the IAS officers in that grade at the centre. Hence if an IAS officer becomes Joint Secretary in 17 years of service the offrs of Org Gp A Service(like the ones mentioned in Para 1) will start drawing the salary of Joint Secretary in maximum of 19 years of service and similarly that of Addl Secretary / Lt Gen in 30 and 32 yrs resp.

3. Why is it not applicable to Def Offrs : Because as per Govt of India Def Offrs are NOT part of Org Gp A Service and the above recom is applicable to only to the latter.

4. If Def Offrs are not part of Org Gp A service then what are they :They are just ‘Commissioned Officers’.

5. If all the above is correct then who all form part of Org Gp A Service and how Def Offrs call themselves Class 1 offrs ; Central Civil Services mainly include AIS (All India Services, namely, IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service) and Org Gp A service .There are a total of 58 services forming part of Org Gp A service. Please see the attachment. Def Offrs are not part of Civil Services but have been broadly kept at par with Gp A Offrs of Civil Services( erstwhile known as Class 1 offrs) by various Pay Commissions. The reference to same since independence is attached.

6. Background to recom of NFU for Org Gp A Service as per 6 CPC:

(a) The Sixth CPC observed that there is a conventional edge of two years between IAS and other AIS/ Central Group A services and stated that though the Fifth CPC had taken the view that the edge need not be disturbed, in practice, however, the gap of two years (for posting to various grades in the Centre in form of empanelment of IAS officers and promotion for other Group A officers), has increased in respect of many organised Group A services.

(b) The sixth CPC felt that this is not justified as Organised Group A services have to be given their due which justifiably should mean that the disparity, as far as appointment to various grades in Centre are concerned, should not exceed two years between IAS and organised Central Group A services. It recommended that the Government should, accordingly, consider batch-wise parity while empanelling and/or posting at Centre between respective batches of IAS and other organised Group A services with the gap being restricted to two years.

(c) Therefore whenever any IAS officer of the state or joint cadre is posted at the Centre to a particular grade carrying a specific grade pay in Pay Bands PB-3 or PB-4,the officers belonging to batches of Organised Group A services that are senior by two years or more and have not been promoted so far to that particular grade would be granted the same grade on a non functional basis from the date of posting of the IAS officers in that grade at the centre.

(d) The higher non-functional grade so given to the officers of organised Group A services will be personal to them and will not depend on the number of vacancies in that grade.

(e) These officers will continue in their existing posts and will get substantial posting in the higher grade that they are holding on non functional basis only after vacancies arise in that grade. This will not only ensure some sort of modified parity between IAS and other Central Group A services but will also alleviate the present grade of disparity existing between promotional avenues available to different organised Group A services.

(f) The Government accepted the recommendations of Sixth CPC and granted the NFU to Organized GP A Services .

7. Why should the def offrs get NFU :Because of the following
reasons :

(a) None of the Org Gp A service faces as much stagnation as the Armed Forces offrs because of its pyramidal structure. In fact, on the contrary, most of the Gp A service offrs, as it is, reach the level equal to Addl Secretary due to cylindrical structure of promotion of their service. Only issue for them is,’ in how many years’. In comparison, 97% def offrs retire at the levels below Joint Secretary / Maj Gen. Hence, if the logic of giving NFU to Org Gp A offrs is stagnation, then, no one deserves it more than the Armed Forces Offrs.

(b) Traditionally, since independence, there has been a broad parity between the Class 1 / Gp A offrs of Civil Services and the Defence Services Offrs which has been acknowledged by different Pay Commissions in their reports. In such a case ,the differential behaviour of 6 CPC not only disturbs the financial parity, it pushes down the def services in status as even direct recruit offrs of Gp B services attain a better pay and promotional avenue and manage to reach the level of Joint Secretary / Maj Gen before retiring . In fact, now Sub Inspectors of CRPF/BSF/ITBP too can beat Def Services Offrs when they too will retire with the salary of Addl Secretary / Lt Gen, if they get promoted as Asstt Comdt / DSP in 8 yrs. All this will only fuel frustration, disgruntlement and will have a demoralising effect on the Armed Forces Offrs.

(c) Since Def Offrs will have to work alongside some of the Organised Gp A Services mentioned, a disparity of this magnitude will lead to functional problems .In some stations, it is already being heard that Civ Offrs have started projecting themselves as senior to top military offr like Stn Cdr. In a specific case a Civ Chief Engineer of MES has started considering himself senior to a COS due to NFU and started saying so all around. Such problems will only increase in future. Moreover, this issue must not be allowed to linger till 7th CPC for resolution. If our top brass stands up united on this issue, the govt will have to accept it. Service HQs are aware of this issue and had sent a proposal to MoD, but it has been rejected. However , the issue needs a more forceful pleading duly backed by Service Offrs unanimously.

8. Benefits of NFU : It will not only benefit the offrs facing stagnation at the level of Lt Col, Col, and Brig, but will also benefit senior offrs like Maj Gen and Lt Gen who otherwise pick up their ranks in 29 yrs and 35 yrs resp, as they will too start drawing the pay of Maj Gen in 19 yrs of service and that of Lt Gen in 32 yrs of service.

9. What can you do : Don’t accept ‘ fait accompli’, Spread awareness, as knowledge is power. Apprise more and more offrs about this discrimination. Raise it in appropriate forums to escalate its level and let the top brass take it up as seriously as PB-4 issue with the govt for IT IS, AS SERIOUS AN ISSUE. It not only affects pay, it also affects status. So please do your bit, at least ask for it from your seniors. If you have anything more to add to this mail, which is relevant and factually correct, please go ahead and add on for the benefit of all, and circulate this in your yahoo/google/any other groups of various courses/ batches on the internet.