MODI’fying India: Modi Govt for Soldiers

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Political Guru

Political Guru (PG) is a silent but excellent performer. He does charities, volunteering, and donations, Often anonymously. He is not from any political background but his analysis and insight about politics can amaze you anytime. On Atul's request, he agrees to write and share his thoughts and taagung family is honored to have him.

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Hindi edition is available here.

Greatest icon of simplicity and my favorite second Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri, who led India to win over Pakistan in 1965, had given the slogan of Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan (Hail Soldiers, Hail Farmers). In my series of analysis of what PM Modi Govt did in last 4.5 years, I am going to first analyse PM Narendra Modi’s works for Soldiers. This will be split into two parts –

1. What Modi did for defense personals.
2. What defense deal happened in this regime to strengthen Indian defense

PM Modi’s works for Soldiers

OROP (One Rank One Pension)  

What is this?

One Rank One Pension (OROP) is the provision where all veterans get the same pension if they retired from the same rank and after the same duration of service, irrespective of their date of retirement.

Under this, If an army officer retires in 2004 after 22 years of army service and another officer retires in 2018 after 22 years of service, they will be getting the same pension. Earlier they used to get 50% of their average salary as pension after retirement. In that case, There would have been a difference of thousands of rupees between these two officers mentioned in the example.

Why OROP needed?

Normally a soldier retires at an age of 35 years after serving his country. He is still young, has his full life to live but most of the job opportunities are gone by this age. He remains deprived of most of the things so OROP is the most needed for them. It is a morale booster of soldiers and also encourages youth to join armed forces to serve the country and have a secured life even after retirement. It also secures the future of their window and sons even if they are martyred.

History

In 1973, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi terminated the OROP. It was in vogue since independence. It happened within 2 years of India victory over Pakistan and 2 months after Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw retired, without consulting Army Headquarters.

After that, it remained forgotten until September 2013, when in one election rally Narendra Modi announced to implement OROP, if chosen to power. This awakens the UPA govt and in 2014 in its last interim budget, they put 500 crores for OROP. So finally, their stance changed after Modi’s election campaigns.

Implementation of OROP

In 2015, NDA Govt led by Narendra Modi, approved and implemented the OROP and released the fund of about INR 8500 Crore.

Here Rajya Sabha TV talks to veterans and they share their opinion after implementation on OROP.

Yes, still it has some disagreements but having something is better that nothing.

National War Memorial

After being declared in 1960 by Army, It got stuck in the political-bureaucratic battle and never could get on the ground. After Modi coming to power, in 2015 cabinet approves the proposal for this project and most likely PM Modi will inaugurate the first ever National War Memorial (NMM) of the country on 25 January 2019.

Celebrating festivals at front –

Diwali is the biggest Hindu festival celebrated every year between October and November based on Hindu Calendar.

When we celebrate any festivals, Army secure our happiness and togetherness keeping their life in danger. After coming to power, each year PM Modi is celebrating Diwali at the front with soldiers and trying to acknowledge their importance –

1. 2014 Diwali – He spent his Diwali at army base camp at 12000 feet in Siachen.
2. 2015 Diwali – This year Diwali, Modi visited several war memorials in Punjab spent time with soldiers there.
3. 2016 Diwali – This year he met soldiers of ITBP, Indian Army and Dogra Scouts in Kinnaur District in HP near India-China Border.
4. 2017 Diwali – This year PM Modi and Defense Minister both visited Indian Army and BSF jawans at India Pakistan border, in Jammu and Kashmir.
5. 2018 Diwali – Again this year, successively for 5 years, PM Modi visited Army and ITBP camps in Harshit, Uttarakhand.

Permanent Commission of Women Officer in Forces

On Independence Day celebration, PM Modi announced permanent commission for women officers. Till now they have been with as Short Service commission only. This step will change the career path of 1,561 women officers in the Army, 1,594 in the IAF and 644 in the Navy.

Bulletproof Jackets for Soldiers

In 2009, Govt accepted the need of 1.86 Lakh bullet-proof jackets but nothing tangible could happen since then. Now under “Make in India” program, Modi govt gave order of 639 crore to one Delhi based company for this.

Even before that, the need of bulletproof jackets could be materialized by only Modi led NDA govt in 2016 by placing the order of 50000 bullet-proof jackets as first order.

Procurement of New Weapons

In May 2015, After one year of PM Modi when Controller and Accountant General (CAG) tabled a report in the parliament that Indian Army could not survive more than 10 days with the available ammunition. This report was based on the status as of March 2013. Replying on this report, then Defense Minister Manohar said that now Army vice chief has all the powers to procurement, so the issue should be addressed swiftly and seamlessly. Now, it is buying some advanced weapons from abroad and added M777 Howitzers after long wait of 30 years from Bofors in 1987 . In a deal to get 145 M777 guns, 25 will come in ready condition and remaining 125 will be assembled in Mahindra Defence under Make in India Program. still, there are shortage on fund for army.

These are the few points, which I could gather after hours of hard work.

In the next part of this, I will be covering defense deals done by this govt and much more. Read Hindi version of this analysis here.

Stay tuned, Stay Informed and Keep TAAGUNGing !!!

Disclaimer – This is not a political article, it is just an analysis and to keep people aware what is happening around. All information mentioned here, have authentic reference and for any conflict, please contact us.