Sunday, December 7, 2008

The Great Divide

We organised this high profile seminar on Women and Terrorism day before yesterday. It had in attendance the leading female dignitaries of the city. We also ensured that the highly educated ladies from all walks of life came. A leading lady police officer of IG rank and other police wives were also in attendance along with some other ladies like doctors, army wives, dieticians, psychologists, teachers and so on. As the evening progressed and the seminar got in full swing, one of our army wives was recounting her first hand experience of terrorism while posted in Assam. Her husband had suffered serious injuries during an encounter and then this lady police officer recounted and shared her experiences. Everybody just listened to the both of them in stunned silence. The lady further said that though she respects all of the India’s armed forces but feels that there is a great divide between the respects people hold for the army personnel. While a great majority of our population holds negative opinions about the police personnel it is not the same, in case of the Indian army.

She said such are a strong sentiments for the Indian army that a common man is just not ready to accept them as corrupt or criminals even if it is proved legally. These sentences actually got me thinking and this is a FACT!! So however discriminatory is the sixth pay commission report and whatever may be the attitude of the governments, the truth remains we are indeed the most respected ones. The janta loves us…………. All we need is a platform where the love of our countrymen is directly conveyed to us.

There are number of ways we can make a difference not only to the life of a soldier, but also to their families. With so many years of military lifestyle with me I can truthfully say that the soldiers need our support now more than ever before. There has been enough of political drama, far too many debates and just too much of hypocrisy. I feel that let’s now for once take the reigns in our hands and make them all feel special and loved. And why only the faujis lets for once love all our forces like the defence, the police , the paramilitary and so on……………….The too deserve it!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The moot point for which our Army earns the respect is that we never say 'NO' to any given situation, let it be floods,quakes,borewells or terrorists encounter. We handle it with pride and success. Basically our work has given this colour and image in the society.
Why do other PMF not carry this image ? Just because of the absence of above said subject qualities. It is the reflection of leadership and trg of the offrs in an org.
To butress the point further, just think about the Mumbai attack. We feel sorry for death of police personnel but the way the weapons were being handled by them, the out come was any body's guess. It just reflected lack of trg and appreciation of the situation. Shooting at street side criminals/Bhai's and tagging themselves as Encounter specialist is not good enough to handle terrorist. But alas these very org have manipulated to downgrade the Army rank equivalance vis-vis themselves. They even have put their IGs in HAG gp ie around Rs 75000/- where as our Lt Gen is in PB4 ie till Rs 67000/-. Can any body justify this esp when we are better trained, work day and night, and even hold their pants when things go out of hand.
Lets get out of Colonial mentality,when being an obedient slave earned us kudos and pat from White masters and felt very great about it. Today, to live with pride has a price, and we deserve it the best, let there be no doubt. It is high time the way public realises our potential and worth. The least our chiefs and govt should do is to put us in higher grades of pay to maintain our morale and social standards vis -vis PMF.

Anonymous said...

We as a force are efficient because majority of us are insulated from poitical interference.The PMF face day to day interference from posting to promotion from the political masters,this results in a corrupt force where everything is up for sale.Majority of the Police GUY'S have not fired a weapon for over 10 years.There are no Mandatory physical standards they have to clear ever three months.And for promotion all officers get promoted to the IG rank as the system is "cash & carry".
This also has its advantages namely being close to the political master you get a GOOD PAY COMMISSION while we suffer.THE MUMBAI EPISODE PROVED THAT POLICE IS INCAPABLE OF FIGHTING TERROIST'S AND MOST OF THE ATS TEAM WAS BUTCHERED DUE TO INEPT HANDLING,BUT ALL HAVE BEEN MADE INTO HEROES WHILE THE PUBLICITY TO THE DEFENCE FORCES
IS GRUDGINGLY GIVEN .
The Govt is not going to give us better salary or facilities because after every episode we are forgotten that too convientiely,so brother keep hoping and dreaming that the seventh pay commission may give us our due