LT GEN BIPIN RAWAT TO BE NEW ARMY VICE-CHIEF

NEW DELHI: The Govt has finally cleared the names of Lt Gen Bipin Rawat as the new Army Vice Chief from Sep 1, while Lt Gen PM Hariz will replace him as the Southern Command Chief. The force on Monday also got a new Signal Officer-in-Chief in Lt Gen A R Prasad. But the suspense over some other toplevel crucial appointment continued despite Chandi Mandir based Western Army Command, which is the most critical formation on the western front with Pakistan, becoming headless after Lt Gen K J Singh’s retirement. 

Normally, Chiefs of Operational Military Commands are announced well in advance. Sources said there was “some delay” since Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had asked the Army for “the rationale and reasons” behind proposing certain names for the top posts. “The files have gone to and fro a couple of times. The appointments, of course, ultimately have to be cleared by the appointments committee of the cabinet chaired by the PM,” said a source.

Though official announcements are awaited, sources say Lt Gen Surinder Singh is likely to be appointed the Western Command chief, while Lt Gen R R Nimbhorkar will be the new Master General of Ordnance. Lt Gen D R N Soni, in turn, could be appointed the Chief of the Tri-Service Integrated Defence Staff.

(Source- Sanjha Morcha blog)

POST RE-PUBLISHED :: 7 CPC & ARMED FORCES : END OF THE LONG AND AGONISED WAIT

DEAR ALL,

REPUBLISHED FOR THOSE WHO ARE UNABLE TO OPEN THE EARLIER POST ON THE SUBJECT.

SGT GV NARAYANA, AIR VET

BLOGGER

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Navdeep Singh ‏@SinghNavdeep 12h12 hours ago

It seems that the notification for the new 7th Pay Commission pay structure for the defence services could be issued tomorrow.

 

In all probability, the controversial line of parity with 'CAPFs' may not be present in the notification :)https://twitter.com/SinghNavdeep/status/771363111202873344 …

Navdeep Singh added

SOURCE: CURTSEY - EX-SERVICEMEN WELFARE

http://ex-servicemenwelfare.blogspot.in/2016/09/flash-long-and-agonised-wait-for-7th.html

(source; Vasundhra blog)

AS SOLDIERS MATES STOOD BY HELDLESSLY WATCHING UNCONSCIOUS SOLDIER, HOME MAKER VEENA SHARMA RUSHED TO THE SPOT AND LOST NO TIME PERFORMING MOUTH-TO-MOUTH RESUCIATION TO REVIVE HIM

(SOURCE- TNN/JOTTING BLOG)

POK WOULD HAVE BEEN OURS, HAD WE USED MILITARY POWER : IAF CHIEF

(Source- Jottings blog)

FLASH : THE LONG AND AGONISED WAIT FOR 7TH CPC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ARMED FORCES PERSONNEL (SERVING AND RETIRED) SEEM TO END TODAY

DEAR ALL VETERAN BROTHERS,

THE LONG AND AGONISED WAIT FOR 7TH CPC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ARMED FORCES PERSONNEL (SERVING AND RETIRED) SEEM TO END TODAY, AS TWEETED BY MAJ NAVDEEP SINGH (RETD).

ENJOY BLOGGING.

SGT GV NARAYANA AIR VET 
BLOGGER
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Sandeep Pandit

TSEWA 394

(SOURCE : AS RECEIVED VIA E-MAIL FROM COL S PANDIT (RETD)

India’s Governance and the Politician-Bureaucratic Nexus in the context of the on going Coal Secretary's case in the Coal scam. The Judiciary prematurely blocked former PM's prosecution in the coal allotment scam and the 2G spectrum scam. The nexus works mostly for the benefit of its own stakeholders : By Prof N. Natarajan

An interesting blog post regarding the cozy relationship between the politician and the bureacrat.

In Bangalore the Chief Secretary (Arvind Jadhav)  is caught in a web of his own lies and should go behind bars soon. Actually he should have already been behind bars for his role as CMD of AirIndia several years ago. But like a cat, all babus have nine lives.

Read on. CHG

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Dear All

I am posting below a blog I wrote only this morning on Linkedin about Politician-Bureaucrat nexus in the context of the on going Coal Secretary's case in the Coal scam. In retrospect I feel judiciary is the third side of the triangle. The Judiciary prematurely blocked former PM's prosecution in the coal allotment scam and the 2G spectrum scam. The triangular nexus works mostly for the benefit of its own stakeholders including elite lawyers.As in the case of any rule there are a few honourable exceptions.

India’s Governance- The Politician-Bureaucratic Nexus

Governance of India is the joint responsibility of elected politicians called Ministers headed by a Prime Minister and administrative executives at the top echelon called Secretaries of various departments dominated by the members of the Indian Administrative Service. 

Lately the country's administrative system comprising the above 2 categories has been rocked by Coal allocation scam leading to the prosecution of H C Gupta former Coal Secy in the Manmohan Govt described as an ‘honest upright’ IAS Officer. The case has attracted much public attention. Gupta in his capacity of Coal Secretary and Chairman of an adhoc coal block allocation committee recommended the allotment of Coal blocks to many ineligible industrialists at throw-away prices for extraneous reasons, resulting in a huge loss of over 2 lakh crores to the exchequer. 

The case demonstrates the Politician-Bureaucrat nexus. The allotments were held illegal by the Supreme Court and cancelled. The coal mines subsequently were auctioned. The proceeds of auctions showed that the loss to the public exchequer would have been even more if the manipulators of the system had not been found out.

Now Mr. Gupta (G) and some of the beneficiaries are being prosecuted for the role in the scam. G told the Court that he had no money to seek bail or appoint a lawyer and that he would personally argue his case from jail. The court was not amused. The judge asked Gupta to reconsider his offer. 

G has been certified by a group of fellow IAS bureaucrats as an honest and upright officer. They are outraged that such a man of integrity was being harassed for the duty he discharged in his official capacity. They fear is that such harassment would deter all of them from taking bold decisions and paralyze the bureaucratic administration. Some of its literary giants are to speaking up for their cause through newspaper articles. Suddenly Mr. Gupta made a U turn and withdrawn his strange request on the advice of his IAS friends.

G has argued that he was merely the Chairman of the committee that took made the recommendations for allotment of mines and his boss the Coal Minister (PM Manmohan Singh was also the Coal Minister) was the approving authority and final decision maker. He claims that he had placed all the facts before the PM. G's case is that since the former PM is not being prosecuted there was no rationale behind holding Coal secretary accountable responsible and the case should be dismissed. The co-accused companies have also taken the same stand. Moreover he says that he did not benefit in any way by the allotment. Hence his plea for discharge.

The discomfiture of the IAS lobby is understandable. This cadre of highly paid officers has sailed smoothly and prospered all along without any accountability ever since independence. They occupy all the top most posts in the Central and State Governments. Lately many of them have a flourishing after-retirement career under the aegis of the Government itself, draft their own rules for promotion under which they enjoy highly accelerated career growth leaving all the other professional cadres including armed forces far behind. 

They can do no wrong. In any other private or public organization in the world, if a person is rejected for a promotion he would at best stay where he is. However the IAS is different. It will surprise you to note that if 10 senior IAS secretaries are found  unsuitable for Chief Secretary’s post (carrying a higher pay due to extra responsibility) and a eleventh officer junior to all of them in seniority is selected, all the superseded officers will be rewarded for their unsuitability by being paid the same salary as the Chief Secretary without any additional responsibility. A senior IAS officer is always included in the pay commissions and ensured that the IAS cadre is dis-proportionally rewarded.

Ministers are always dependent their IAS secretaries to execute their clandestine activities to favour businessmen and crooks at the cost of the exchequer. Unless a supportive noting is made by the Secretary on the file as a protective shield, no Minister would find it safe to show any undeserved favour to anyone. Even the Minister’s foreign tour itineraries are imaginatively prepared by the Secy to get approval of the PM. A smart Secretary scents suitable opportunities and creatively records the justification which the PMO cannot easily turn down. The entourage naturally would include the Secretary and his side kicks in this win-win collaboration. A recent example was the large secretarial delegation to Rio Olympics led by the Sports Minister. 

The Minister-Secretary nexus works beautifully. It also enables the bureaucrat to push some of his personal agenda through, like cornering a piece of Government land in a posh urban locality for a nominal price, or overseas scholarship for his son etc. 

Even many honest IAS officers have palatial homes in the best localities in their name or as a benami holding.  A Chief Secretary of Karnataka is said to be in a huge real estate business in Bengaluru in the name of his mother aged 86 years!

If a maverick like Ashok Khemka IAS (who unearthed illegal allotment of land to one Robert Wadra), refuses to oblige his political boss he will  get shunted from pillar to post every few months. No Govt would reward him for his honesty. A man called Bhatia was punished with 10 transfers in 10 months and was labelled a trouble maker. 

A pliable Joshi in the MP cadre of IAS and his wife made and hid crores of rupees in their house. They are yet to be punished.

 

Why has the IAS lobby risen in favour of Gupta? 

The parliament enacted a small amendment in the Prevention of Corruption Act which says that if any public servant either derives a pecuniary benefit for himself or allows another person to obtain unintended pecuniary advantage in a deal at the cost of the public exchequer he can be punished with imprisonment. Hence Gupta cannot escape by saying that he did not personally benefit from coal mines allotment. Moreover being the highest executive authority in the Administration he cannot escape personal responsibility. 

Pointing fingers at Manmohan Singh will not dilute his own criminal act, although there is merit in his argument that the latter is also culpable. G is sinking and the straw called Manmohan cannot save him. 

If Gupta is punished, it will put an end to the cozy relationship between IAS and the Ministers. Even ministers would hate such a prospect which will end their manipulation. 

No wonder the IAS lobby has started its breast beating act. Their fort is being raided. To help them in their cause there is already a bill in parliament to delete this provision and dilute the definition of corruption in the Prevention of Corruption Act. This just shows the nexus between politicians and babus no matter which party is running the government.

G’s is a test case. If he goes unpunished it will mean that no prosecution or conviction for corruption  will be possible in future. The bureaucrat will always argue that he is not responsible for a decision taken by his political boss. The political boss in turn will argue that he only went by the advice he received from his secy. The case will fall between two stools. 

The only hope is that the judge will stay his course. 

It is not sufficient for Gupta to say that he told the PM everything. He should be pardoned only if he comes clean, turns approver and also discloses the entire political intervention by Manmohan Singh and other Congress bosses in the scam. The CBI in turn should not hesitate to prosecute Manmohan Singh since G and others gave implicated him. 

After all, the entire buck stopped at PMO and he did intervene in another allotment to the Birla group. He cannot claim ignorance or innocence.

 

With regards 

Prof N.Natarajan

(Source- Via Gp e-mail from Carl Gomes Naughtilus, Vet)

THE CLOSURE : A MOTHER'S DREAM ! : Indigo Airlines Salute to the Martyr. who on hearing the story straightaway agree to sponsor the travel of the parents and sisters from Kochi- Bangalore- Kolkatta- Dimapur through Indigo airlines. The tickets sponsored by Indigo for Sub Maj AT Joseph , Thressiamma and two sisters are already with the parents. This is an extraordinary gesture by the airline and goes a long way in giving it back to the nation in their own way. Kudos to Team Indigo for showing a unique way to the country, how to show gratitude and salute its heroes!

How would you feel if you were a Mother who loses her only son at his prime age of 21, and then be unable to be present for his last rites and never be able to visit her son’s grave for a lifetime? Some pains can be forgotten, some forgiven, but for Mrs. Thressiamma Joseph from Kerala, this one riled her for over 25 years. Unknown to this pain, a course of Army Officers get together to celebrate their 25 years of passing out from the Indian Military Academy. Their plans to meet up in Dehradun are being worked out. Will it be possible to gather all the mates after a gap of 25 years? How many will turn up finally?

Jun 1992, somewhere in the North East.  2Lt ET Joseph is looking forward to catch the train in a day to go back to his hometown on leave cum posting. His posting order had come few weeks ago from the Gorkha Battalion that was his home for over a year. Though  commissioned to Army Intelligence Corps a year back, he felt at home in the paltan that he was serving now. He was dined out from the Unit the previous day and had been stuck off strength.

The officers are relaxing in the Mess, suddenly they receive reports of some terrorist movement. The unit is tasked to neutralize them. The CO gets his Quick Reaction Team together. 2Lt ET Joseph knew the terrain well. He volunteers to go with the team for the operation at night so that he could be back by early morning to catch the first convoy out. The others asked him to chill. But ET feels that he should join the boys in the operation. He has time till the morning to get back. Unknown to many, God had other plans…..2Lt E Thomas Joseph lays down his life for the nation in the firefight that night.

Far away in Shillong, the next day, another serving soldier, Sub Maj AT Joseph, is preparing for his dining out in the JCO’s Mess. He is looking forward to reaching Bangalore, his next posting station. As he reaches the JCO Mess, he receives the news. Heartbroken and devastated Sub Maj Joseph leaves for Nagaland accompanied by two of his colleagues. They reach the temporary camp location on the 3rd day after the death of his only son. The mortal remains of brave heart 2Lt ET Joseph are laid to rest in his father’s presence.  Due to poor connectivity those days, it is not possible to transport the body to the soldier’s hometown. ET’s father leaves the place within two hours of burial at the Army cemetery. He is terribly broken due to the unimaginable grief of losing his son. He is in a state of shock.

   Grave – 1992

When the news of the loss reaches Mrs. Thressiamma Joseph, she and her two daughters are inconsolable. Sub Maj AT Josephis unable to come to terms with the biggest loss in his life and on his request, gets his retirement sanctioned from Indian Army. He comes back to his family in Kerala the same year. He does his best to educate his two daughters, ensure the family lives decently, over the years he gets his daughters married. The husband and wife then look towards the twilight in their lives.

Deep down, both Joseph and his wife Thressiamma try their best to overcome their grief. But a sadness that had no closure couldn’t be overcome. The mother in Thressiamma, longs to visit the burial place. But they are unable to afford the long journey. Where would they gather that kind of money? How would they travel thousands of miles? Who would know the place? Who would help them? With old age catching up, the hope just fades away. They hope to meet their son at God’s abode one day.

New Delhi: Feb 2016 – Jun 2016: The plans for a big bash for the 88^th Regular and 71st Technical Course to celebrate 25^th year of service to the nation gets underway. The core team gather information of all the officers who had stepped out from Indian Military Academy on 08 Jun 1991. Slowly the number of officers and families who agree to travel to Dehradun increase. The show is getting bigger and better each passing day, as news of some buddy who had lost touch trickles in. Amidst all the plans to make the reunion memorable, one evening Vikram Gill one of the leading organizers of the event, calls up Sajan and says “We have to remember and honour those who have fallen amongst us. We have to make their families proud”. They decide to design an apt memento for each next of kin (NOK) of the Martyrs, invite and felicitate them.

Vikram then sets out to find out the addresses of the NOK of Martyrs, who had laid down their lives at various points. His tireless efforts, reveal to him, a list of 19 brave hearts. 2Lt E Thomas Joseph is first in that list. A memento is made for each NOK of the Martyr. Their families are contacted and invited to join the celebrations at Dehradun. However Sub Maj AT Joseph and Thressiamma could not be contacted as they had shifted from their address.

Eight Veer Naaris, Brothers and Sisters of Martyrs, travel from far and wide including Australia and take part in the three day celebrations in the last week of June 2016, where over 140 officers, nearly 100 ladies and over 100 children attend with full gusto.

88 Reg/71 Tech Course Silver Jubilee Celebration : IMA, Dehradun

The events aptly commence with felicitation of the Veer Naris and NOK of the Martyrs. A film painstakingly made by Anirban & Jacob is screened which brings  memories of yesteryear’s spent with these brave hearts. The course together has won 1 Ashok Chakra, 2 Kirti Chakras, 6 Shaurya Chakras, 2 Yudh Seva Medal, 32 Sena Medal Gallantry, 8 Sena Medal Distinguished, 7 Vishisht Seva Medal, 5 Mention in Dispatches. Truly we are among the bravest ones. The celebrations are great, well planned and heart touching. Bonding is amazing meeting up with buddies who are reuniting after a gap of 25 years. The Veer Naris who attend feel honoured and thankful to the course for the great gesture. Vikram requests the memento’s be personally handed over to the NOKs who could not attend. The responsibility to hand over ET Joseph’s memento rests on the shoulder’s of Shamsher who is posted at Kochi.

88 Regular-71 tech Course Indian Military Academy on 24 Jun 2016

Shamsher searches for ET’s parents. The address he had is old. One rainy day in

Shamsher handing over the memento to ET Joseph’s proud parents

Kerala lady luck finally smiles when he locates Sub Maj AT Joseph’s humble abode near Kottayam. He reaches there and presents the memento to the proud parents. The fact that their son was still being remembered and honoured by his buddies even after 25 years really makes the parents extremely happy. Over a cup of coffee, Thressiamma, pours her heart. She talks about her unfulfilled dream of making a trip to the North East and pray near her son’s grave.

Shamsher returns to Kochi and  informs the course in their social group the need to help a mother to fulfill her long standing dream. A decision is taken that the course will rise to the occasion. The hurdles are many. The old age of the parents, the finances, the long travel, and most of all…..to find the location of the grave. A quarter of century has passed and the knowledge of the event has faded. Not much is known.

Robi who is posted in the North East volunteers to search for the grave. His efforts each day results in despondency. Then one fine day ‘Eureka’, the grave is located. It is dilapidated.  So a new dimension is added to the long list of pending tasks. How to get the grave restored?

The Grave- 2016

Egged on by Shamsher, the course contributions starts pouring in. Course mates of E Thomas Joseph, from Army, Navy and Air Force, from 78 NDA Course and 88 Regular/71 Tech Course rise to the occasion. As I write this, the figure has crossed Rs 2,30,000.

Indigo Airlines Salute to the Martyr. A course mate working with Indigo Airlines, contacts their Management, who on hearing the story straightaway agree to sponsor the travel of the parents and sisters from Kochi- Bangalore- Kolkatta- Dimapur through Indigo airlines. The tickets sponsored  by Indigo for Sub Maj AT Joseph , Thressiamma and two sisters are already with the parents. This is an extraordinary gesture by the airline and goes a long way in giving it back to the nation in their own way. Kudos to Team Indigo for showing a unique way to the country, how to show gratitude and salute its heroes!

Course mates in various places are arranging stay at all these places. The grave is being done up. Permission is being sought from various authorities to ensure the visit goes on without any hassles. The Army will also play a part to ensure the visit goes well. A Senior Officer in the rank of Army Commander has assured all help.

78 NDA & 88 Regular/ 71 Tech courses are unique. ET’s parents lost one son but got back 300+. Each of the sons are striving hard to ensure the trip goes smooth. Vikram Chauhan in Delhi, Robi in North East, Shamsher in Kochi, Manoj with Indigo, RN at Kolkatta, Atul Salunkhe, Lalli Virk, Sanjay Tripathi, Viju Sundaresh, Joseph George and many others are working tirelessly to make The Closure. This journey also reveals the kind of passion the service officers work with qualities like Camaraderie, Regimentation, Sacrifice, Selflessness, Espirit-de-Corps, Bonhomie, Commitment and Friendship which all were the essence of the Silver Jubilee Celebrations.

The trip is planned for October 2016. Cheers to this Band of Brothers, and to Indigo Airlines who have magnanimously chipped in!

A mother’s dream is about to be fulfilled! Await this space for more on this journey.

(Source : Sajan speaks /via e-mail from A Sunder Rajan, Vet)