Shame on Chetan Bhagat: OROP views dishonour Indian Army
I did not read Chetan Bhagat's article in the Sunday edition of The Times of India on September 15, 2015 till this Monday when my father brought it to my notice. Being a retired army-man, he felt hurt that a national daily of such popularity should publish what he felt was an unresearched, insensible and insensitive article. A number of veterans have already responded to Bhagat and invited him to debates based on facts and a proper analytical study of the one rank one pension (OROP) situation which he has chosen to ignore, instead sharing and replying to senseless abusive articles to gain sympathy. What really irked me and made me write this one week on, was his banal refusal to accept any logic put forward for his benefit and the issuing of statements such as "And while I have no confirmation, the mob style social media attacks show there is political backing to this ex-servicemen protest."
As the daughter of a family that has served in the armed forces, I felt humiliated and slighted that someone with the kind of following that Bhagat has should refer to ex-servicemen as a mob. We - the children of parents in the armed forces - take great pride in our parents and this kind of attack on the honour of our tribe is not easy to digest, given the kind of sacrifices made by our families (especially our mothers). So, I chose to attempt a reply.
Bhagat asks readers if it is time to use the mind and not the heart when harsh economic realities have to be faced and decisions taken. God forbid, if the soldiers at the front start to apply logic and back out when faced with the bullets of either the enemy or the terrorists, will Bhagat, then, ask them to act in concert with their heart? One is compelled to think of the Pakistani establishment as an analogy. It has long been known and fairly well-established that the Pakistani establishment uses terror groups against India, particularly over the Kashmir issue. These terrorists are called "freedom fighters" by the Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). However, they become "terrorists" when they strike inside Pakistani territory.
Bhagat need not have looked far to see how the government plans its expenditure. Shortly, elections are due in Bihar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised a Rs 1.65 lakh crore special package for the state's development while asking people to vote for the BJP. Bhagat chose to blinker himself to such shenanigans. If the amount pledged by the prime minister was part of planned expenditure for Bihar, why was it not released as part of a routine budgetary exercise? And, if not part of planned expenditure, where is it being sourced from? Compared to this, an amount annually required for the OROP is a drop in the ocean, just seven per cent of the Bihar special package. How do such ironies skip the attention of an IIT and IIM alumnus who has made a niche for himself in the world of literature? Isn't Bhagat pulping his own reputation?
To cap it all, Bhagat is the son of a retired army officer and has been criticised by his father. Instead of raising questions about the justified demand by the armed forces veterans of their right, Bhagat should have brought out the pusillanimity of the entire media which has completely blanked out the OROP agitation by the veterans. Oh, how naïve of me. How would Bhagat earn his honorarium for the article, since the media wouldn't touch it with a barge pole!