As the controversy over armed forces’ reluctance to implement pay commission report rages, former cricketer Kapil Dev on Tuesday said their grievances could have been sorted out internally and should not have come out in the open.“If they (armed forces) have a demand, it is their internal matter and should not have come out before the common man,” Dev told reporters after donating blood at a camp organised by Territorial Army (TA) in New Delhi.The government had recently appointed Kapil Dev as an honorary Lieutenant-Colonel in the TA and named him a brand ambassador to attract new talent to the defence forces.“Everyone wants an increase in their pay. All of us want to lead better lives,” he said to questions from reporters on what he thought about the defence personnel’s objection to the pay commission implementation.Soon after the 6th Central Pay Commission’s report was approved by the government in late August, the chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force had expressed their reservations over the “discriminatory” pay scales that lowered the personnel’s status vis-a-vis their civilian counterparts.The matter snowballed into a controversy after the Services’ chiefs were reluctant to implement the Cabinet decision on the pay commission.The government later set up a three-member ministerial committee under External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A K Antony and Finance Minister P Chidambaram to sort out the issues pointed out by the Services chiefs.Though both the government and the defence forces have denied any differences on the pay commission issues, the latter have communicated to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that they wanted the political leadership to resolve the pay-related issues.The armed forces requested the government to resolve four core issues of placing the Lieutenant-Colonels in Pay Band-4, parity in Grade Pay of officers from Captains to Brigadiers, placing Lieutenant-Generals in Higher Administrative Grade Plus as the Director Generals of Police and Paramilitary, and restoration of pensionary benefits to jawans.On Kapil’s role as the brand ambassador, TA’s Additional Director General Major General KVS Lalotra said his responsibilities include motivating and encouraging youth to join the armed forces, and spread the message of TA in the remotest corners of the country.Dev, popularly known as the ‘Haryana Hurricane’ for his bowling skills, said donning the ‘olive green’ was a bigger achievement for him than representing the country in flannels on the cricket pitch.“Being in uniform is a bigger achievement for me”, Dev said and urged the people to come out and join the TA to strengthen the country’s defence forces.
