One rank, one pension blues
Fauji beat
By Pritam Bhullar

STRANGE are the ways of the government (read bureaucrats) when it comes to giving a fair deal to soldiers. The bureaucrats do not get tired of proving it time and again that no legitimate benefits can be given to soldiers unless the former pocket them first.

On assuming office as Prime Minister in 1989, V.P. Singh said in his TV address to the nation that his government "stood committed" to "one rank, one pension" demand. The then President, R. Venkataraman, had also made a similar commitment in his TV address in December 1989. What followed thereafter was the appointment of "Jaffa Committee" which gave a bureaucratic burial to this demand.

Now as per the government notification issued in the third week of December 1998, the bureaucrats have given themselves what they have been denying to the soldiers all these years. The notification says that all Central Government pensioners, irrespective of their date of retirement, will get 50 per cent of the minimum pay introduced from January 1, 1996 as pension for the post held by them last.

The Defence Minister, George Fernandes, said on December 22 that "the long pending one rank, one pension issue is expected to be resolved soon". He also said that a Cabinet paper on the subject was ready and some discussions on the issue were awaited.

Are defence personal not Central Government employees? If they are, which of course they are, then why this tom-tom about "one rank, one pension" at this stage which has already been given to all Central Government employees?

However, the fact remains that our "destiny markers" (the bureaucrats) had to get the pay advantage first before giving it to the "faujis".

Housing problem

One of the major disadvantages of military service is that soldiers have to stay away from their families for the better part of their service. While they understand that their service requires them to stay without families in field areas, what makes them sore is that even during their short tenures at peace stations, most of them do not get married accommodation.

In a tenure of about two years at a peace station, an officer remains on the waiting list for accommodation for one to one-and-a-half years. Because of the entitlement of married accommodation for infantry jawans being only 14 per cent, very few of them can bring families to peace stations and that too not for more than a year in each case.

Paucity of funds prohibits building of accommodation as per the entitlement of the Army. Whatever, little construction is planned from time to time does not make a perceptible dent in the huge shortage.

Maj-Gen Inderjit S. Dhillon, Chief Engineer Western Command said the other day that 290 quarters for officers and 1542 for other ranks would be constructed in the current financial year. He further said that the target for the year 1999-2000 was 184 and 900 units respectively. He also said that a case had been taken up to construct prefabricated houses at various stations in the Western Command as has been done for the Air Force at Gurgaon.

Provision of married accommodation in peace stations is a must for morale. Funds should, therefore, be made available and construction taken in hand on priority basis. Preferably, the Army should go in for prefabricated houses because they can come up in about three months. Most armies of the world have gone in for this type of construction.

AIDS afflicts soldiers

The spread of Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the armed forces has caused concern to the military authorities. The Army has issued a "Commander’s Handbook on AIDS" to guide the personnel on how to combat the killer disease.

What makes the armed forces personnel a high risk group is that they stay away from their families most of the time.

Besides, the inherent stress and strain of the service and stay in inhospitable areas make them to fall an easy prey to promiscuous sex.

Even according to the official figures, the disease is spreading fast. More than 6,000 personnel are said to be suffering from AIDS at present, while in 1990 and 1997, there were only 18 and 1432 cases respectively.

The information collected from the infected personnel is said to have revealed that 85 per cent of them got the infection from commercial sex workers, 10 per cent from causal sexual contact and 5 per cent from blood transfusion/injections taken in civil set-ups in an emergency.

There is no denying the fact that the Army woke up to the danger of this disease quite late because till 1986 there was no surveillance of HIV and AIDS in the armed forces. Issuing of a booklet alone will not serve much purpose, unless commanders at all levels carry out a drive to prevent personnel from getting caught in the deadly web of this disease.

Some of the positive measures would be: one, to encourage personnel in field areas to visit their families more frequently by allowing them to avail of their full quota of leave; two, in peace stations, married accommodation should be provided up to the authorised scale so that maximum number of soldier can live with their families.

War memorials

There is no better way of paying homage to the warriors than to construct memorials to keep the deeds of their valour alive. What was missing at Headquarters Western Command, Chandimandir, all these years was a war memorial.

It was Lt Gen H.B. Kala who felt the necessity of having a war memorial at Chandi-mandir cantonment. Accord-ingly, the memorial was designed and its foundation stone was laid by him on the Golden Jubilee anniversary day of Headquarters Western Command which fell on September 15, 1997. The well-planned and beautiful memorial called "Veer Smiriti" was constructed before the historic Vijay Diwas on December 16 in 1998.

On this day, the 1971 War, in which the Indian armed forces achieved the most spectacular victory over Pakistan, came to an end, resulting in the creation of Bangladesh.

The wreath laying ceremony at Veer Smiriti on December 16 was attended by the gallantry award winners, officers, JCOs and other ranks (both serving and retired).

 
Don’t hear but listen

By Amar Jit

A GOOD conversationalist is loved by everyone. He is the centre of attention in any gathering. It does not require a genius to be a good talker but we do find only a few of them around.

What we have in abundance are "club bores". They are the ones who hog all the conversation in a group and do not allow others an opportunity to express themselves. Naturally, they are shunned by everybody.

It should be obvious that in conversation between two persons, one should remain silent for at least half the time. Yet this hardly happens in practice.

In a tet-a-tete with another person, if you don’t listen to what the other person is saying at least half the time, then you simply monopolise more than a fair share of the conversation time that is not yours by any right. You may not be conscious of this simple encroachment on the other person’s right to express.

Good listening is the key to becoming a good conversationalist. Most people do not listen to others in a conversation. They may appear to be doing so, but, in truth, they hardly absorb anything that is being said.

Have you ever looked carefully at some persons you may be talking to? They may be making a pretense of listening to you. But when you stop talking, they continue with the train of thought they were pursuing before you began talking to them. Small wonder, they did not absorb what you said. On the contrary, they were more interested in saying what they wanted to tell you.

In such a situation, it may suddenly dawn on you that they haven’t listened to you at all. Rather they regarded what you said as an unwelcome interruption in their inner monologue.

Such persons make you feel that your conversation was of no importance to them. This is something you must become aware of, and try to avoid if you want to forge a friendly bond with others. This is only possible when you cultivate the art of careful listening.

When one person listens and the other talks, a lot of give and take takes place. This helps to enlarge the horizons of both persons. Besides, it helps us to learn more about human nature. People are perenially interested in other people and is the things they say or do. This is especially true of people in the news.

Newspapers devote a lot of their space to covering the news, views and lifestyles of celebrities.Why do newspapers do that? Each one of us likes to see himself or herself in the personality in the news.

We like to think that we could also have said wise or clever things that the personality in the news has. It is natural for a salesgirl to identify herself with the glamorous film star and the young lad with the world-famous pop singer and so on.

People are emotional beings. When we open our mouths let us speak constructively, and encouragingly. Such thoughts will help others think better of themselves and inspire them to fulfil a few of their dreams.

Make an effort to discover the other person’s interests in life. Try to share these with him. Talk about things which are important to him such as his hobbies, sharing views on inter-personal relationships, films, theatre, foreign lands and so on.

Offer encouragement and approval to other people who need them. We all have our moments of temporary failure or defeat. If you find another person in such a mood, try to show him the better side of life, how today’s failures, with grit and hard work, can be turned into brilliant success.

If you find the other person deep down in the dumps due to some emotional crisis, draw him out of his depression by showing him the positive and brighter side of life.

Making such a person talk and listen to what is uppermost on his mind, or give vent to whatever is troubling him to most can by itself help the afflicted person to shake off the mood of negativity.

In agreeable conversations, one person does his best to look at things from another’s point of view. Thus, each makes positive and constructive remarks to encourage the other in his constructive or creative pursuits.

While it is central to good conversation to show an interest in what the other is doing, this interest should not be pushed beyonds limits of decency.

If you learn that the other person has done something good and nice, and worthy of praise, be generous in extolling his efforts. Not only does it make the person who has been praised feel good. He may be encouraged to continue doing something even still better.

By listening carefully to what other people say, sharing their interests with them, and speaking well about their efforts in helping others and the society at large, we can make our conversation sparking.