WATCH: To shine officer’s shoes is no gallantry, crib Army jawans

On Friday, when Army chief General Bipin Rawat was issuing an appeal to the men in uniform not to air their grievances on social media, Lance Naik Yagya Pratap Singh posted at an Infantry Brigade at Dehradun released a video in which he accuses his seniors of harassment following his complaint to the Prime Minister and President about ‘exploitation of Army jawans’.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to address a meeting of commanders at the Indian Military Academy on January 21 at Dehradun.

The Lance Naik has raised his voice against the British era practice—which the Army has refused to do away with—of posting jawans as orderlies with officers. “The job of a jawan appointed as an orderly—called batman or sahayak—ranges from washing and ironing clothes of an officer’s family, polishing shoes, cooking and serving food, baby-sitting, watering plants, walking pet dogs and even accompanying the officer’s wife when she goes for shopping to the market in an official vehicle along with driver and a co-driver,” said several jawans, echoing their support for the Lance Naik.

Describing it as a ‘shameful practice’, a Parliamentary committee in 2009 had recommended that officers should make do without orderlies. The UPA government had, however, rejected the panel’s advice.

“On June 15, 2016 I wrote to the Prime Minister, President, Home Ministry, the Supreme Court and the Human Rights Commission. This was about exploitation of jawans by senior officers,” said Yagya Pratap in a video released to the media by his wife, Richa Singh, adding that “subsequently, our office received a letter from PMO and it took our brigade by storm. Thereafter, my senior officers have started harassing me.”

“But in my letter, I hadn’t written anything against the Army. I didn’t pass on any sensitive document of the Army such as location of ammunition depots, maps or any kind of sensitive information,” he said and added, “I just wrote a letter in which I urged that soldiers trained to defend the country shouldn’t be compelled to polish their officers’ shoes or walk their pet dogs. This practice needs to be done away with.”

“Following the show-cause notice from the PMO, the Brigade Commander, the Deputy Commandant, the Camp Commander, the Subedar Major, a Subedar and a Naik started harassing me (in the video he names the officers).

“I am being summoned daily... and they have been abusing me. They have pushed me to the brink of contemplating suicide. A normal soldier would have taken the extreme step in this situation, but for the dignity of my uniform, I won’t commit suicide… ”

His wife, Richa Singh told the media: “They (officers) have snatched his cell phone. He spoke to me last night briefly from someone else’s phone. They have threatened to chop him off, kill him... This country is not being governed by the British. The Prime Minister must look into the matter.”

The brewing resentment is snowballing with more men in uniform speaking up against corruption. “ Very often fewer than sanctioned porters are hired or they are not hired at all, getting the job done by regular jawans,” some of them alleged.

Admitting that many officers go the extra mile to take care of jawans under their command, they alleged that there are many others who treat jawans as minions. In fact, the CAG had also pointed out in the past that substandard food is served to soldiers of Indian Army—the world’s third largest, they pointed out.

Sources privy to certain units of the Army stationed in sensitive high altitude areas of Jammu and Kashmir, told National Herald: “Provisions such as dry fruits, protein powder, chocolates etc meant for jawans get siphoned off by the officers in some cases. A jawan going home on leave is usually asked to carry packets filled with such things—with a layer of apples on the top—to officer’s homes. Jawans do not object fearing persecution and also because they would like to stay in the good books of his commanding officers.”

“Jawans are provided meat less than the prescribed quantity, ” alleged one of them while adding, “suppose 1.5 quintal is the prescribed quantity of meat for a unit every week, only a quintal of meat is purchased. At the time of weighing, meat is usually soaked in water—and even that one quintal has about 20 litre of water in it. All that the unit gets is 80 kg.”

In 2011, the then director general of supplies and transport, lieutenant-general SK Sahni was court-martialed and sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment for embezzlement of rations meant for Army jawans stationed in Siachen Glacier—the highest battlefield in the world. Another Army Service Corps officer, Lieutenant General SK Dahiya was indicted in 2007 for irregularities in procurement of frozen meat and dry ration for troops posted in Ladakh.

“Jawans rarely use clothing material and shoes provided by the government due to their poor quality. The supply is made through contractors who usually grease the palms of senior officers supposed to keep watch over the quality,” sources claimed, adding that “a solution to this problem lies in doing away with the tender process and the middlemen. The money should be credited in the accounts of soldiers for such expenditures.”

“Even when a unit gets transferred to a new location, mobile phone service providers start swarming the officers of the unit. And jawans are then prodded by their officers to purchase SIM cards of a particular company,” sources alleged.

“In remote locations and rural areas they hardly get any medicine in the units,” alleged an army jawan on holiday.

Wife of an Army jawan who is undergoing fertility treatment at Research and Referral Army Hospital Delhi told National Herald: “My husband took me to the hospital for IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) in 2015. We were in for a shock when I was told that the waiting list was so long that I would have to wait till 2018.”

“My husband is retiring in the same year—and thereafter, we won’t be in a position to afford living in Delhi. We’ll have to return to our home state,” she wailed.