Dear Prime Minister,
Firstly, Please accept my congratulations on your becoming the PM of 121 Crore Indians, their destiny is in your hands.

I am not the one who will feed you with platitudes right at the outset as there are scars on my soul of 1984 massacre of Sikhs in Delhi, I see every riot with that perspective and measured you with same yardstick, may be years of media hype, may be the constant harping by so called secular parties did play on my mindset, what appears right to a person may be just the wrong impression gathered from sources that have vested interest in bombarding the visual or print media with such information that it starts appearing like gospel truth, Goebbels the propaganda minister of Hitler had said, that a lie told 100 times starts looking like a truth to the people. I will be lying if I say that your election did make me happy but now it is a different matter.

 I think I was so terribly misinformed about you, 3 decisions taken by you changed my mind completely, one was inviting the sworn enemies to your swearing in ceremony, action about black money and lastly, opening the defence sector with 100% FDI and this has been biggest corruption den for UPA, over the years they have weakened the nation so much that we are almost at the level of war preparedness that was in 1962.Having said that, I feel you have been blessed with mandate that even Indira Gandhi did not enjoy, if she had enjoyed such mandate, I am sure she would have destroyed the country more, my dislike for congress is from one issue, Its leadership works on the Gandhi Nehru DNA, there is no other qualification needed to lead the nation, a person who is not good enough to be a clerk in any office was sweating to become PM of this great nation.

You don't have any such baggage; you are master of your own destiny, now the master of the destiny of this nation. Did your party or advisers give you feedback about defence matters? Mostly, the advisers tend to sugar coat the bitter pills, the problems in defence are far too serious than what is shown in media or even on Government files lest the enemy take advantage of the situation. The weapon system are mostly antique pieces that west has discarded long back, the soldiers are not happy with their pay scales and living conditions.

There is a famous saying in the Army" It is not the gun, it is always man behind the gun" that is what is ailing the defence forces. How can any Army be battle ready where there is 40% shortage of officers at unit level? You will find that all the vacancies on staff and higher ranks are always full but the Battalion or unit level that really goes to war is having all these shortage, an Infantry battalion that is supposed to have 21 officers has anywhere between 9-12 posted in the unit. Did anyone tell you why this deficiency is there in the first place? Why young men don't want to pick this most respectful profession in the world? Who wants to serve for a pittance in comparison to the other branches of the Government, our salary is almost 50% less than the babus who become IAS or IPS at 25 but we join at the tender age of 16-20, we are on the border ,sitting in bunkers and keeping a close watch on such resurgent enemy like Pakistan at 21-22 and they are on their desks at 26, it is a different ball game to be a file pusher in a Government office, much secure life and guarding the border of this vast nation.

It is my challenge, try and make IAS probationer spend 3 months on border with armed forces, and they will really learn the value of life and of our soldiers. Most of the soldiers are retired in the age group of 40 to 52 whereas peon upwards everyone retires at 60. We are asked to proceed on pension when our financial responsibilities towards family are at the peak. The nation wants to keep the Army young without paying the cost to the soldier who does not question orders of the Government, should this nature of not questioning the orders go against him?

Did anyone tell you that a Major of Indian Army gets lesser pension than a Junior Engineer in Punjab State Electricity Department?
It is a fact, till 2004, 60% officers retired as Majors, Government changed the rule and now same Major is retiring as minimum Lt Colonel, with pension that is 18000 more than the Majors, Is it our fault that Government changed the rule and we happen to have defended those borders, doing same duty just days before this so called sacrosanct date of Government orders? There are so many Majors running in our clogged courts seeking justice as the Government system is so rotten that no one listens to their plea.
Dear PM, I am writing to you with hope, I am not begging you, soldiers are not supposed to beg, it is not our trait, You should do justice to soldiers by implementing One Rank One Pension and bring the pension of Majors at par with Lt Colonels.
A soldier will salute the PM if he does take care of him or even if he does not care of him, that is training and commitment of the soldier.
I am sure you will do full justice because you are a jarra Hatke PM
With warm regards
Major Gurdeep Singh Samra veteran