This is the lament of several soldiers and ex soldiers. Not unlike the frustration of the VP marketing of a soap company that people no longer buy their good soap. They shout 'I have a lovely product. It is my clients that are lousy'.
Well, it is for the people to decide what value they wish to assign to us. What interest can we possibly have to 'educate them'. Do we have to sell our soap to them?
We are not a security agency to sell our services to a housing society or a factory at the best possible terms. We are a force created by the will, sanction and resolve of the people to have what they want to have.
Oh, I see. So, their act of assigning low value to us will weaken our motivation which will weaken their own security. Well, let it. Are the armed forces an insurance against external threat or an instrument to boost the security consciousness of the country? let us not assume roles that are not assigned to us.
Who is ultimately responsible for the safety, or anything, of the nation. It is the people themselves. If they decide to live with reduced safety, let them.
And what should be the response of the new generation to taking up these jobs which have lost all attraction. Well, don't join the armed forces. Take up other jobs. There is no conscription in India.
Organisation of retired army officers prepare big fat files, full of copious data about how poorly they are being treated by the government and take these files to whom? The very government that they are complaining about. Proud warriors of yesterday turned pathetic favour seekers.
Instead, they should drag the government to court. And do so scornfully, as an equal contestant.
