^Marablog.net^

1 Oct 2008

CHANDIGARH: Expressing their anguish against defence minister AK Antony asking Army chief to maintain discipline, the veteran Army officers have sought an apology from him and have stated that instead of defence personnel politicians needs to observe discipline particularly while attending the parliament session.

This statement from the former Army officials came during a media interaction in Chandigarh on Monday, where former Army officials from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir had gathered to discuss various pending issues concerning them including anomalies in the sixth pay commission report.

Lt Gen (retd) P N Hoon, national chief coordinator of Atam Raksha Sangh, said that statement of defence minister asking Army chief to maintain discipline is highly objectionable. He said there is need to have better type of leadership who understand politics. ‘‘To understand the needs and psyche of defence personnel, politicians should undergo compulsory month long training in Siachen and Rajathan under extreme weather condition. Then only they would realize under which circumstances security forces are serving,’’ said Hoon, adding that armed forces are not getting due respect and in next 10 years Army would not be able to defend the country.

Col (retd) G S Sandhu, chairman, Majha Ex-servicemen Human Rights Front, said that reported harsh languages and threat used by the minister against the service chiefs should be condemned and political parties would have to pay heavily for this in the coming election of they do not support the demand of military veterans. He said no national level party has come out in support of the defence personnel regarding anomalies in the sixth pay commission. There government is in deep slumber on the issue despite knowing the morale of defence forces is low and there is deep sense of hurt due to anomalies in the sixth pay commission recommendations, he added. Sandhu said there was a shortage of 13,000 officers and a large number of officers are opting for retirement to move towards more lucrative corporate sector. Col (retd) Dharam Singh, president, Rashtriya Raksha Dal said that ex-servicemen at block level were forming groups to turn themselves into a strong votebanks so that parties could not dare to ignore them in the coming election.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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