OROP. :COUNT ME IN, PM SIR, I'M PART OF YOUR TEAM...! & Mr Finance Minister, I can help!

SOURCE :
http://www.tribuneindia.com/…/-count-me-in-i-m-…/121766.html







          COUNT ME IN, PM SIR, I'M PART
                                     OF
                        YOUR TEAM...!

                    Maj-Gen Raj Mehta (retd)


Aug 20 2015

I AM Charu Sheela, proud widow of Lt Col Balbir

Singh, 4 Grenadiers. Sprightly at 96, I am good at

arithmetic, managing on my meagre pension and

endless optimism for acche din.


I know Field

Marshal Sam Manekshaw died at 94; that Marshal of

the Indian Air Force (MIAF) Arjan Singh is 96. I do

hope, though, that he and I can benefit from OROP

while we are alive because OROP isn’t admissible for

the brave dead.


I dream I could buy something nice

for my great-grandchildren if only

Arun Jaitley gets his maths right.



 Mr Finance Minister, I can help!



Women are genetically wired for

budget balancing!




When that pleasant and respectful boy Vishnu Som,

who reminds me of my favourite great-grandson,

recorded my sound byte at Jantar Mantar on August

14, he graciously noted I was protesting with dignity

and equipoise as retired veterans and dependants

across gender do. I was in widow-white and told him

that the police had not been so nice in roughing up

some of my late husband’s military colleagues.



Grenadier Bishamber Singh took part in the 1962,

1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars, just like my late

husband.

He was awarded a Sena Medal for

gallantry and was wearing his hard-

earned medals on his nice white kurta,

when a rude policeman ripped them

off.

I planned to stitch a new kurta for

him but his niece has beaten me to it; stitching him

two!



What really troubles me though, isn’t the kurtas, but

Bishamber’s psyche: frail at 82, he and several other

old soldiers were manhandled, one of whom bravely

held back his tears from his weathered, proud

face...men don’t cry. “It’s not done,” my husband

would cryptically say. As a military lady, however, I

do feel that this disrespectful rough-handling was

avoidable; wasn’t par for the course…May be the

police need some lady-imparted emotional

intelligence training along with their baton training.

This’ll educate them to approach peaceful agitation

by disciplined soldiers with empathy, as opposed to

rough-housing those who have willingly chosen

Naam-Namak-Nishan (honour-integrity-nation) as

their work ethic unto death.



Their emotional hurt will eventually heal but maybe

Col Rajyavardhan Rathore can help. I know he is a

union minister and a proud Grenadier, just like my

husband and Bishamber. He knows that soldiers

across uniform and services need to be treated with

dignity, respect and restraint. He is an Olympics

silver medallist in shooting and we know that he

achieved this distinction because he was a straight

shooter. 




There are many of us at Jantar Mantar (I keep

visiting my colleagues there for expressing

solidarity) who passionately feel that

 our Grenadier minister should convert his skilled


straight shooting into political straight talk.


He can do that by requesting our dear Prime

Minister to show regard for the armed forces by

sanctioning this long-promised right that my dear

husband couldn’t avail, but I and MIAF Arjan Singh

might because we are all part of your Team India,

Modi Sir!

​​                                          

--
--
THROUGH MUD AND BLOOD,

        TO THE GREEN FIELDS BEYOND