Govt, Army battle it out over new pay scale

FACE-OFF: The Armed Forces continue to defy a Cabinet decision to implement new pay scales.

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New Delhi: It's a battle that is turning uglier by the day. The Armed Forces continue to defy a Cabinet decision to implement new pay scales. A truce brokered by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee seems to have broken down.

It's the most serious stand-off between the military and the Government in the last 10 years.

For a month now, the military leadership has defied the Cabinet decision to implement the 6th Pay Commission recommendations. And never before have military protests for higher salaries been louder.

Army veteran Major General AB Jaini says, "It's so bad, it's so sad. It's so bloody criminal."

Vice-Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal PV Naik adds, "We are so agitated because we get so little."

Worried over the political implications, the UPA Government moved in last weekend to end the stand-off. After announcing a ministerial committee headed by Pranab Mukherjee to address their demands, the chiefs were asked to notify by Monday the new pay grades they had been resisting.

But even on Tuesday, no such notification was issued. The message was that the military will dig in their heels till they get the money they are demanding. The political-style campaign, sometimes involving ex-servicemen, has disturbed the Government.

Minister of State for Defence, MM Pallam Raju says, "This is very unbecoming of the Army."

The last serious Government-military stand-off in 1998 had led to the sacking of the then Navy chief, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat.

Some elements of the current stand-off are ominously reminiscent of 1998 - like the reported souring of relations between the military and the Defence Secretary and the spat playing out publicly through leaks to the media.

The confrontation just seems set to get uglier.