Ex-Army chief, veterans protest language used for disabled officer cadets

It said, “The cadets are well aware of the service conditions before joining service. The government is kind by granting them a monthly payout by way of monthly ex gratia awards and disability awards”.

The comment attracted much flak from veterans on social media, including retired Chief of Army Staff, General VP Malik.

The comment by an undersecretary level official of the DESW, made in a letter to the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), said that cadets are well aware of service rules when they join and implied that the government was doing them a favour by giving them an ex-gratia monthly dole.

Major Navdeep wrote, “All are well aware of this anomaly. Despite judicial intervention & in-principle approval of successive Raksha Mantris, such condescending language is used by MoD officers! Youth joining forces expected to be aware they’d get disabled while training.”

Gen VP Malik reacted to the tweet by putting out a tweet of his own tagging the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “This is shameful language and attitude of bureaucracy in MoD,” his tweet said.

Speaking to The Indian Express, General Malik said that it was a matter of shame that such insensitive comments had been made by a DESW official who should be better attuned towards the plight of disabled cadets. He condemned the language used by the government official for disabled officer-cadets of the defence services, who, when invalided out on account of disability, are released without any disability pension, medical cover or other benefits by the government.

The former chief said these cadets should be given the status of ex-servicemen so that they can avail of the same benefits instead of living on a paltry stipend.

“I have raised this issue several times in the past along with many others, including Navdeep. But the MoD bureaucracy has done absolutely nothing to correct this anomaly. Last year I had tweeted the need for a replacement of a motorised wheelchair for disabled ex-Cadet of NDA Shubham Gupta. It is sad that the MoD has no means of providing such facilities to disabled cadets. It was Capt Amarinder Singh, who was the Chief Minister of Punjab at the time, who reacted first to my tweet and offered a wheelchair,” said Gen Malik.

As on date, for 20 per cent disability, while an invalided out civilian officer-trainee is paid Rs 36,465 per month and a recruit (jawan) is paid Rs 18,000 as disability pension, a military officer-trainee/cadet is paid only Rs 12,240 ex-gratia. Also, the widows of all other invalided trainees get family pension on their demise but those of military officer-trainees do not. Even lifelong medical care is available to all trainees except military officer-trainees.

Though the controversy was lingering for quite some time, it came into public consciousness for the first time in 2014-2015 when the then Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar expressed concern and assured its resolution while referring the matter to a High-Level Committee of Experts constituted by him on Prime Minister’s directions to curb litigation.

The Committee, in 2015, came down heavily upon the DESW and put on record that this was an ‘artificial distinction’ and ‘absurd proposition’ and ‘self-invented way created by ‘fertile minds to refuse benefits.’ The panel also pertinently observed ‘we expect all concerned to be gracious in such issues and not indulge in surgical objections to hold back benefits and fishing for negative connotations.’

The matter thereafter remained on a simmer with the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), the Army, Navy, Air Force and even the Defence Accounts Department strongly batting for resolution of the anomaly. Later, the Punjab and Haryana High Court also directed the Government to look into the issue to ‘avoid unnecessary litigation’ where multiple statements were also recorded under contempt proceedings by the defence ministry that it was committed to resolve the anomaly. Even Rajnath Singh made a statement in the Parliament that the anomaly was being looked into.

Coming as a shock to the DMA as well as affected disabled trainees, an Under Secretary of the DESW has now written back to the DMA again last month rejecting the proposal while adding that the “government is kind by granting them a monthly pay-out by way of monthly ex-gratia”.

Official sources state that seven years after Parrikar and the High Level Committee had rebutted all hyper-technical objections taken by the DESW and all departments of the defence ministry had vouched for removal of the anomaly and even after judicial intervention and statements of the current Raksha Mantri in Parliament, the DESW has made it a prestige point and again used the same hackneyed points to reject the proposal.

“Now, crossing all limits, has used insensitive words for such trainees, some of them bed-ridden and unable to make a living and afford medical support. The same also reflects rather weak hold of the top echelons of the Ministry over lower authorities in this rather small DESW set-up,” an Army officer said on condition of anonymity.