REPORT OF MEDAL DEPOSIT RALLY ON 14 MARCH 2010 AT JANTAR MANTAR
Dear Veterans
The rally started at 1000h on 14 March 2010 at Jantar Mantar. By 1030h the venue was full.
The rally was attended by more than 2000 ex-servicemen and their families. Many highly decorated ex-servicemen were also present like Brig Nand Gopal MVC, who had traveled from Chennai Tamil Nadu to attend the rally. The mood in the rally was upbeat and all were thanking IESM for taking up the problems of ex-servicemen and bringing them to the centre stage. They were very appreciative of the help being given by the pension, ECHS and CSD cells of IESM. In general all have exhorted the IESM leadership to continue the fight on behalf of ex-servicemen and their families with the Govt till all our demands are accepted by the Govt. They all supported the method of protest of depositing the medals with the President and vowed to remain peaceful and within the bounds of law in our protest morchas and rallies.
The delegation from many states as listed below were present in the rally.
Jhajjar, Haryana.
Gurgaon, Haryana.
Hissar, Haryana.
Bahadurgarh, Haryana.
Panchkula Haryana
Gazipur, UP.
Lucknow, UP.
Ludhiana, Punjab.
Tarn Taran, Punjab.
Patiala, Punjab.
Bathinda, Punjab.
Ropar, Punjab.
Barnala, Punjab.
Garh Shankar, Punjab.
Ajmer, Rajasthan.
Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
Sikar, Rajasthan.
Balia, UP.
Jalaun, UP.
Kanpur, UP.
Lucknow, UP.
Pune, Maharashtra.
Himachal Pradesh.
Meerut, UP.
Gautam Budh Nagar, UP.
Chandigarh.
Delhi and NCR towns.
Kerala
Tamilnadu
Parallel rallies;
Apart from the rally at Jantar Mantar, parallel rallies were organised at Pune Maharashtra, Banguluru Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Speakers;
More than 30 speakers including representatives of the visiting delegations from all the states addressed the rally and confirmed their support to the IESM management and its policies of keeping the rally peaceful and within the bounds of law. They exhorted the management to increase pressure on the Govt and accept anything less than full OROP.
Gist of Speeches;
All the speakers were applauded by the crowd. All speakers encouraged the IESM to continue the fight for fulfilment of demands of ex-servicemen. Speakers after speaker blamed the Govt for the poor state ex-servicemen and their families. All present were very critical of the Govt falsehood on the floor of Lok Sabha and also the wrong impression being created by the Govt by giving false advertisements in the newspapers. All speakers were of the opinion that the Govt is spreading rumours through the newspapers and their yesmen that the OROP has been granted to the armed force personnel. Whereas the true situation is that the we are still very far from OROP. For example Govt has increased pension of a sepoy who had retired before 1997 from Rs 3045/ to Rs 4971/ and brought it at par with the sepoy who had retired after 1997 and before 1 Jan 2006. The question every speaker asked as to why the pension has not been made equal to the sepoy who has retired after 1 jan 2006? A sepoy who has retired after 1 Jan 2006 gets a pension of Rs 7045/. It is surprising that the sepoy who retires after 1 Jan 2006 gets more pension than a Havildar who had retired before 1 jan 2006. This is a complete anarchy and is not acceptable. All present shouted that we will not rest till OROP is granted for all ORs, JCOs and officers' .
Speakers also criticized the Govt policies of discarding the defence personnel after extracting juice from their life and thereafter jettisoning them. Army personnel are forced to retire after a service of 20 years and at the age of 37 to 40 years. This is the time in his life when he has maximum responsibilities and has old parents to look after but is without a job and on meagre pension. It should be the responsibility of the Govt to give him job till 60 years.
Speakers also expected more improvement in ECHS and canteen facilities to be extended to all the ex-servicemen in villages also.
Maj Gen Satbir Singh SM, Vice Chairman of IESM; Maj Gen Satbir Singh recounted the sacrifices made by the ex-servicemen and asked the Govt that why does a sepoy who had fought in 1962 against the Chinese army, in 1965 and 1971 against the Pakistani army, in 1999 in Kargil war should get less pension than the sepoy who is retiring today or after 1 Jan 2006. He roared and wanted answer of following questions from the Govt.
Had their sacrifices been less than the sacrifices made by a soldiers who are retiring today?
Was their life less important than the one retiring or serving today?
Were they lesser citizens of Mother India than the ones retiring today?
Were their families lesser citizens of Mother India than the families of the ones retiring today?
Did those soldiers and heroes faced softer bullets than the ones facing today?
Did they live in better conditions than the ones living today?
Did they serve Mother India less than the ones serving today?
If answer to all of the above questions is NO then why should, the army personnel who retired earlier than the 1 Jan 2006, draw less pension than the sepoy who is retiring today? He questioned the Govt that even Supreme court has accepted that Govt can not give different pension based on their date of retirement to the two army personnel of the same rank and length of service. He exhorted all present to go back to their villages and unite all your brothers so that we can put up a united fight against the the policies of the Govt. He further said that the Govt only listens to vote bank and with our numbers of 22 lac exservicemen we can influence a vote bank of more than one crore hence we shoud all get united and force the Govt to accept our demands. He invited all ex-servicemen associations in India to come forward and join hands with IESM and fight for the right of ex-servicemen.
He said that today is a very sad day in the history of India, because an army person who has never hesistated to give his blood for the Mother India is forced to sign a memorandum with his blood to the President (Supreme commander of defence forces in India) because our supreme commander, on whose order we have all given our life and blood to protect the integrity of our Mother land, has refused to listen to our legitimate demands (I would like to use word 'litany of woes' comments please). He informed all present that our brave soldiers from Punjab, Pune, Bangaluru, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and many other states have sent the memorandum signed in their blood which will be sent to the President. A total of more than 6000 ex-servicemen have signed on this memorandum.
He also informed the gathering that ex-servicemen have deposited 22000 medals at six occasions to the President for safe custody as mark of protest till our demand of OROP is granted by the Govt. Approx 5000 medals have been received today for depositing with the President. These will be taken to President house by a delegation of ex-servicemen.
He roared and asked all to join in this fight for our rights and make this Govt realise that ex-servicemen are very unhappy and angry with the treatment being given to them.
All present roared back and shouted that Gen Sabir tum lado hum tumhare saathe hain.
Unity; Maj Gen Satbir Singh invited all the members of Governing body and Core group to come on podium and confirm to all present their resolve to continue this fight till all our demands are approved. All the members of Governing body and core group came on stage and with their hands held high confirmed the unity and their resolve for the long fight.
Lt General (Emeritus) Raj Kadyan PVSM,AVSM and VSM Chairman of IESM; Lt Gen Raj Kadyan informed all that our novel method of protest has been very effective and Govt, for the first time, has accepted the principle of OROP in the speech of the President in both houses of Parliament. This could be possible only because of unsurmountable pressure created by IESM by depositing the medals to the President time and again. He informed all present that he had been getting hints through many officials that the Govt has agreed to the enhancement of pension of ex-servicemen hence ex-servicemen should now honourably take the medals back. He asked all present if they were satisfied with whatever the Govt had given and all shouted back that we would not take the medals back till OROP for all ex-servicemen was approved by the Govt.
He informed all that ex-servicemen were only depositing the medals for safe custody with the President as a mark of unhappiness and protest for government's refusal to accept their genuine and long pending demand of OROP. We would honourably take back our medals as and when our demand of OROP was approved by the Govt. Ex-servicemen can continue using the decorations and continue to enjoy all benefits which go with the medal as we are only depositing the medals and not repeat not returning them.
He thanked Brig Nand Gopal MVC who had come all the way from Tamil Nadu to attend the rally in support of demand of ex-servicemen. He requested Brig Nand Gopal to come on stage and felicitated him. He also thanked the veterans who had come from long distances and represented their states. He appreciated the presence of many families for taking the trouble of coming for the rally to show their solidarity with their brothers.
He further informed the gathering that the fight for OROP with the Govt would be long and difficult. We would have to keep patience and prepare us for a long fight. He said it was difficut to give any time frame for the approval of OROP but he was very confident that with our resolve, to keep increasing the pressure on Govt, would certainly bear fruit and OROP would come sooner than later. He informed that the countrymen are now understanding the difficulty of the ex-servicemen and are sympathatic to our demands. This is evident by the court cases in favour of the ex-servicemen.
He reminded the ex-servicemen that our protest would remain peaceful and within the bounds of law. Ex-servicemen had a very good image of a disciplined person in the society. We would ensure that this image was maintained as society looks upto ex-servicemen as a good citizen and a model citizen.
He informed the gathering that IESM had deposited 22000 medals at six different occasion. Every time IESM delegation was met by a junior officer at the Rashtrapati Bhavan despite our request to Madam President to accept the medals herself. This time also I had written to the President to accept the medals in person from the delegation. He stated that it had been decided that if the President herself did not meet the delegation the medals will be brought back and a press statement will be issued. However the memorandum signed by the ex-servicemen in their blood would be handed over to the staff at Rashtrapati bhavan. The gathering approved this strategy with a loud uproar.
The Gathering shouted slogans
Gen Kadyan tum hamare leader ho tum lado hum tumhare saath hain.
OROP le ke rahenge le ke rahenge.
Fouji ekta zindabad zindabad.
Chairman once again thanked all for coming for the rally despite their other pressing works.
Medal Deposit; The table was handled by Hony Lt Kamleshwar Pandey and veteran Balathikan. Ex-servicemen enthusiastically and voluntarily deposite d their medals. A total of 5000 medals were collected including the ones received from various states represented brought by their representatives. The medals were packed in two boxes and a delegation led by Col Kirit Joshipura and Col Phulka from Punjab proceeded to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to hand over the medals to the Madam President. Despite the request by the Chairman IESM the madam President did not accept the delegation personally, hence the delegation returned back with the medals after registering their protest with the office of the President. It is very surprising that the President of India, who is the supreme commander of defence forces and on whose order the ex-servicemen had laid down their life, had no time to meet the delegation. A press had been issue for this and is attached with this report
