Jawans' food, pay: Take urgent action

An army marches on its stomach. Napoleon understood this well two centuries ago, but those responsible for running the Indian State are slow to grasp this fundamental mantra, or the discussion over a BSF jawan’s uploading a video on the quality of food served in a mess on the Line of Control in sub-zero temperatures wouldn’t have made the country do a double-take, as is seen from the social media content of recent days.

To this poignant discussion around the worse than sub-standard mess food has been added the raising of concern over the conditions of service, including pay and leave, for those who don’t belong to the officer cadre — that is shorthand for the governing classes or the owning classes.

This aspect of the plight of the trooper has come through a CRPF jawan seeking better pay through the social media. A jawan of the CISF, which guards vital institutions, on Thursday turned his gun on off-duty and unarmed senior colleagues in Bihar when he was denied leave. He is likely to face the death penalty, but there’s hardly any doubt that little attention is paid to the psychological conditions of young soldiers on duty in extremely difficult physical terrain and hostile conditions, far from home and typically without communication with loved ones for long stretches even in this age of digital media.

Each case is different. Issue around mess food are serious and a clear indication that the officers in charge make money from traders and let the men serving under them eat anything at all. The fact that the jawan still puts in solid work to guard our security is a marvel.

The better pay demand raised by the CRPF man is worth considering, although seeking parity between paramilitary forces and the Army, Navy and Air Force is a far more complex matter. But this doesn’t mean that a legitimate debate is not due. Parliament must consider the question.

The issue of leave is not so intractable. This is a very old problem. Shootouts have occurred before, but the matter has gone unaddressed. Leave and other terms of service are decided typically by civilians who have very little understanding of the ground realities for those who serve most of a day’s 24 hours standing for the firing to begin or a bomb to go off in their face.

The BSF’s basic reaction was to shoot the messenger — to run down the man who spoke about food conditions, raking up his record of bad behaviour. Well, punish him if necessary for that, but don’t ignore what he says about life while performing active duty. Fixing a few officers may also be necessary after an independent inquiry, not an in-house charade.