Visakhapatnam: While Army chief Gen. Bipin Rawat warned jawans against venting their grievances on social media platforms, the case of an Indian Navy sailor serving at Vizag who was served a show cause notice and discharged from service in April last year has come to light.
The sailor, Gaurav Sirohi, from Amroha of Uttar Pradesh, who served on the Vizag-based INS Rana, too, had aired his views on social media. He had raised issues related to the standard of food and medical facilities provided to sailors and had made some allegations of corruption against the officers.
Among the many other charges of indiscipline levied against him in the notices served by the Indian Navy, which were accessed by this newspaper was the use of social media platforms like Facebook and approaching a local police station, writing to the CBI and the district collector on certain issues. He had been served show cause notices twice, in October and December, 2015.
“Whilst onboard INS Rana, you caused an unsigned copy of your FIR subsequently lodged with the Malkapuram police on August 7, 2015, to be circulated on social media (‘ save the crusader sailor’ site on Facebook), thereby tarnishing the image of the service. “You have thus again contravened Art 19 (3) of the Navy Act 1957,” one showcause notice said.
“This action of yours has led to many young serving sailors commenting adversely against the officer community on the said site, resulting in an almost mutinous fallout. Your ploy to sensationalise your grievance on the public domain and to whip up the sympathy of ex-servicemen sailors with scant regard to the image of the service is totally unbecoming of a serving sailor, besides being in contravention to the prescribed procedure for redressal," said the notice issued to the sailor.
Sailor says followed all procedures
Mr Gaurav Sirohi, the sailor who was discharged from the Indian Navy, said he had followed all procedures of redressal. There was no response from his seniors, and he had to approach the Eastern Naval Command’s commander and resort to other means.
“It is very unfortunate that defence personnel have been forced to take help of social media. As per the service rule, a jawan has put up his grievances through his commanding officer,” said Veteran Sailors Welfare Association president Dinesh Kaushik.
