Bhadra
Professional
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- Jul 11, 2011
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It is such a sorry state of affirs that if one Maj Navdeep Can stir the hornets nest, what are our three Service Chiefs doing. And what are the plethora of retired officers such as you doing !
When ever you visits your units, you would not encounter your generation like Laat Sahab officers now. Thank God for small mercies...
Knowing entitlements and ensuring that all men get their dues is the basic of command. Being unaware of it and not fighting for it for fear of being termed as a "baniya" is absolute negligence of duties and responsibilities....
It it not Laat Sahib officer.
It is being totally involved with the men and the work, where you have very little time or inclination to devote to personal issues or to your pay and allowance and other rights.
That is why people were happy to achieve whatever rank they had, the men listened to their officers and Senior NCOs and there were no issues of three mutinies back to back 2011 to 2012.
Or fragging or suicides, even though the conditions then were not so cushy, safer and comfortable as it is today.
COIN of those days was a new game and the dangers were more.
Operating in mud bunkers on the LC was no 'paradise' as it is today.
For your information, I was up at the LC just late last year just to be with my troops and that too under fire! That is what is called the Regimental Spirit. Being with the men and sharing their joys and tribulation was and is a more important issue in life than being totally involved in one's own self! In fact, though it was when I was an acting Major I had given then a TV (at that time it was a novelty), they proudly displayed it for me when I went now as if it were the Crown Jewels. I told them to throw it away, but they said it was a memento to be preserved of their longest service Company Commander. Well, that feeling is much better than involving oneself with his own burning ambition to rise (as is the case now) to be the Chief or nearabout, with little time for what one is actually paid to do - training his command and undertaking combat efficiently and with minimum loss of lives when deployed. This gesture made me feel that I had not lived my life in vain and instead did as best as I could and it was appreciated even after 30 plus years since I left the unit! I was surprised that they remembered me (none were there when I commanded my company) and the stories had passed down the generations! That is the feeling that is worth living for even if one forgets what one's financial entitlement.
One did not forget the jawan's financial entitlement since in those days there was a paybook (AB 64 IIRC) and we had to update that with our own hands every time a DO II was published!
We officers and men may not join the Armed Forces because we are Rajputs and but our training was such that we imbibed the ethos that fighting for our Nation as it being our Dharma.
Nam, Namak, Nishan!!
This is what Lt Gen Oberoi, a Vice Chief has to say
Soldiers' lay their lives on the line, not because of the pay or allowances that they get (which in any case are less than what the equivalent civil officials receive) but because of their self-esteem and military élan.
True Laat Sahib officers have gone, but something more dangerous has crept in (exhibited by quite a few) - 5 Star culture, creature comfort hunting officers and men who are enamoured in the well being of their self!