The dust has finally settled down after a hard-fought Lok Sabha election and with Defense Minister Rajnath Singh having taken up his second tenure in the office, several major challenges are lined up before the Ministry of Defense (MoD).
Among the major issues cropping up in the daily life of serving soldiers and veterans is mass litigation which has been resorted to in the form of appeals against settled case laws related to disability pension and other welfare measures, as well as the inadequacies of the Sparsh pension. disbursement system.
The voting pattern of families linked to the defense services was a cause of concern for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. Political analysts believe that it was not just the Agniveer scheme that dented the prospects of the ruling party in the north but a series of actions that were perceived to be insensitive, ill-advised and displayed an absence of control over the bureaucracy of the defense ministry. running rough over deeply emotional issues.
A major sore point was the re-initiation of massive litigation against disabled soldiers across all high courts by the MoD in late 2023. After a series of strong orders by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) against erring officials of the MoD’s finance wing for non -implementation of judicial orders, the Judge Advocate General’s department (JAG) of the Army took an opinion from senior law officers to challenge thousands of favorable AFT verdicts on disability pension in high courts and the Supreme Court, rather than implementing them.
Appeals on the same subject were withdrawn on the orders of the defense minister in 2019 and further high-level committees of experts of the MoD and the law ministry had come down heavily on officials of the ministry and the defense services for engaging in such unethical litigation. .
A panel under the then defense minister Manohar Parrikar in 2015 had, in fact, recorded that stress and strain of service aggravates all kinds of disabilities in soldiers and affects their longevity compared to civilian employees and such litigation pursued by the ministry was “ego-fuelled ”. Parrikar had imposed a complete ban on such litigation against disabled soldiers.
A senior serving officer remarked on the condition of anonymity that the defense services on the asking of JAG and MoD (Finance) “are now fighting thousands of cases every day against their own disabled soldiers and widows in HCs and SC rather than focusing on their duties. ”, adding that “not only is this against law and the practical harsh service conditions of soldiers, but also bad-optics initiated to satisfy the prestige of certain officers at the receiving end of court orders aided by legal advisors eager to massage egos rather than speak the truth.”
The litigation was followed by a change in “entitlement rules” for disabled soldiers and widows by the MoD, which, as per medical and legal experts, “defy medical science”. Experts also point out that the attitude of the MoD displays overriding of political directives by bureaucrats, and for the past few years, there was a total lack of responsiveness from the minister’s office, the MoD and the defense services on sensitive issues raised by veterans in the media and social media.
Another cause of concern has been the Sparsh scheme launched by the MoD whereby the disbursal of pensions from the earlier existing system was taken over by the Defense Accounts Department from banks, allegedly brushing aside practical realities. The new scheme has resulted in the incorrect disbursal of pensions in a large number of cases and requires old pensioners and widows living in remote places to be technologically savvy and net-literate.
More than anything, experts say, the loss of votes among its traditional military vote bank has shown that important decisions cannot be left to career officers by the political leadership.