Indian Army and Indian Defence Forces have always had a huge respect from the people of India. Remember the Slogan ... Jai Jawan Jai Kisan ...

The safety of a country is in the hands of the their Defence Forces, be it Army, Navy or Airforce. The fact that we the citizens of India are living a peaceful and wonderful lives ... is the reflection of the fact ... that the defence establishment works 24 hours a day ... for all the days in the year ... to make our country safe ...

Sure in today's India, there are many security challenges like that of Terrorism, Naxalism, Factionism, Goondaism and other challenges.

We also have external threats China and Pakistan in our near Neibourhood.

The defence establishment ... along with the other security agencies ... along with the Police establishment ... has to be complimented for their efforts to make sure that the security of the country is getting the top most priority.

But unfortunately ... lately it seems that the "respect" and "honor" that the Indian Defence Establishments of yesterday enjoyed ... is no more being felt by the "soldiers" of today ...

Everyday we see the "soldiers" in high positions of the Army, Navy and Airforce taking Premature Retirement from the defence forces ... and taking up the High Paid Jobs of the New Companies of a rejuvenated Indian Economy.

It is really saddenning to see that a lot of such skilled defence people ... are changing their loyalties towards "money" instead of their "country" ...

What is really hard to digest is the fact that many of such Premature Retirements are taken by "very skilled defence officers " in "High Positions" ... whose presence, expertise and experiance will be a big asset to the defence forces in various fields ...

WIth China flexing its muscle ... Pakistan playing a dice game with us ... Islamic Terrorists challenging to submerge the country into chaos ... Naxalites wanting to destroy the governance structures of the country ... religious fundamentalists inside the country eyeing every opportunity to make sure that their agendas are voilently fulfilled ... IS IT NOT THE TIME FOR THE DEFENCE FORCES TO INCREASE THEIR MAN POWER ?

MY suggestion to the Defence Ministry :

1.  It should immediately suspend the "Premature Retirement Schemes" ... each and every officer should serve till his/her "normal retirement" in Defence Forces ...

2. There has to be an aggressive initiative to make sure that more and more youngsters are joining the Indian Defence Forces ... the sooner the better ...

3. The Budgetary Allocation to the Defence Ministry should be "atleast doubled" on the current yearly bugetary allocation in the Finance Bill 2008 ... and the salaries of the defence personal ... across all positions ... should be "doubled" ...

4. The Defence Mininstry should expedite "defence purchases" ... in a fair manner, that is without any controversies like Bofors ... and make sure that the country is having enough "fire power" to deal with any eventuality ...

All these have to be looked into by the Defence Ministry ... NOW ...

And to my dearest Defence Personal ... May is remind you wonderful people that you are not working in the Defence Forces to make a "Good Living" ... YOU ARE IN DEFENCE FORCES OF INDIA ... TO SERVE INDIA ...

Vamsi Krishna Karra.

http://vamsikarra.wordpress.com