Flagrant Government Apathy Towards Military

A recent spectacle in Rajya Sabha once again reinforced the shameless apathy of the Indian establishment towards its soldiers. Two ‘starred question’ were posed to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) by a Member Parliament (MP); a starred question is sent in writing in advance to the concerned ministry, to enable preparation time for the answer. The MP raised two questions - full questions can be viewed at

one, why is the government repeatedly dragging veterans into litigation for grant of disability pension despite many directives of the Supreme Court not to do so; two, the SPARSH portal launched for disbursal of pensions has too many glitches, is the government planning to improve this, and is so, by when?

The questions were replied to by the Minister of State (MoS) for Defence Sanjay Seth, who kept on rattling his response from a script that was completely unrelated to the questions (https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16N5TRqg7b/). This specimen perhaps did not understand what the questions were. His nonsensical response could have been anything from dialogues from a porn movie to detailing that the prime minister visited 52 countries in his 41 foreign trips in four years, averaging annual expenditure of about INR 83 crores.  But in all probability, this fellow deliberately ignored the questions, which is why he went on buttering the prime minister, while Deputy Chairman Harivansh in the Chair looked amused as Sethi waffled aimlessly, with the MP pointing out that the questions were not answered.

The state of our politicians and parliament was covered in these columns earlier (https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/op-eds/reign-of-criminals/). Isn’t it sacrilege to appoint the species of Sanjay Seth in the Ministry of Defence (MoD), who cannot comprehend what veterans faced while in service and with wards of veterans serving in the military, such shameless apathy affects morale of the forces? To add to this, the defence minister is as apathetic towards the military, if not more. A serving Colonel and his son are brutally beaten by the police in Punjab but there is no statement by the defence minister.

The judiciary has ruled that disability pension can “only” be denied when medical board records show that the disease existed at the time of joining military service (https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/punjab-and-haryana-high-court/punjab-haryana-high-court-disability-pension-can-be-denied-only-when-medical-board-records-disease-existed-when-officer-joined-military-service-273537). Also, the Supreme Court has rejected government’s appeal denying disability benefits to disabled soldiers, saying, “They are in the line of fire. They sacrifice their life for you and for us. This is the least you could do for them”. (https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/supreme-court-rejects-centres-appeal-denying-benefit-to-disabled-soldiers/).

In January 2025, the Supreme Court, hearing an appeal filed by the Union of India against an order of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) granting disability pension to a retired radio fitter, said  government should not drag retired members of the armed forces to court in such cases, pointing to several such appeals being filed (https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/supreme-court-slams-union-govt-over-mindlessly-challenging-disability-pension-of-armed-forces-members-282500).

In February 2025, Delhi High Court, dismissing a petition filed by the government challenging the August 29, 2023 judgement passed by AFT (New Delhi), rapped the MoD for “tampering with medical records” of veterans to deny them disability pension (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/delhi-hc-raps-mod-for-tampering-with-medical-records-of-retd-officers-to-deny-them-disability-pension/articleshow/118512313.cms). Can anything be more shameful?

The above is only a few samples of scores/hundreds of veterans being denied/delayed disability pension. It began when Nirmala Sitharaman (now Finance Minister) was the defence minister, and the situation has aggravated since. The irony is that only the Armed Forces are targeted. The MoD employs a battery of lawyers, paying them lakhs and lakhs of rupees, to drag veterans to court for disability pensions. It would not be surprising if these lawyers are related to politicians or their cronies. All this is with full knowledge of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who as Home Minister went out of his way to ensure rights of police forces are not tampered with, but in his present avatar acts like a post office. The Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (DESW) headed by him doesn’t have a single Ex-Serviceman as member. Under Rajnath Singh, some of the AFTs (headed by civilian judges for  delivering speedy justice to Armed Forces) are lying defunct. In other cases, judgements are challenged by MoD or judgements not implemented.       

Another sample of political hatred towards Armed Forces was in October 2023, when Union Minister Jitendra Singh (working directly under the prime minister) publicly said with a smirk, “Army officers are Useless”. After the backlash on social media, he deleted this portion from the videoclip, which amounts to spitting on the floor and then licking it clean. With such specimens spewing venom in public, do we need enemies like Pakistan?  A social media question is why expect our politicians to respect soldiers when they don’t even find India fit to educate their wards and send the abroad, for example; Nirmala Sitharaman’s daughter (Northwest University), Rajnath Singh’s son (Leeds University), Piyush Goyal’s son (Harvard University), Jitendra Singh’s son (Oxford University), Prakash Javedkar’s son (Boston University), Ravi Shankar Prasad’s son (Cornell University), Shivraj Chuhan’s son (Pennsylvania University). Yet, the amusing part is to see politicians dress up in military uniforms, some even wearing a military hat atop a dhoti/pyjama, strutting around with sunglasses, like ducks from Hitler’s poultry.   

SPARSH was introduced as a pension disbursal portal to save some INR 400 crore being paid to the banks for the same purpose. But now the expenditure is estimated to have risen 8-10 times, with the PCDA establishing SPARSH facilities pan-India, plus some of the banks allowed to act as SPARSH portals. Donald Trump is pruning the American establishment with DOGE, but this is one example of India practicing DOGE in reverse. The reason is that Indian politicians solely depend on bureaucrats who are unaccountable, follow their own agenda, and politicians prefer to go along with them (https://www.rediff.com/news/column/prakash-katoch-what-modi-can-learn-from-trumps-doge/20241128.htm).

Government claims SPARH is updated and running smoothly, but a petition in circulation says “SPARSH traps 50% of us – aged, non-tech can’t access SPARSH portal. Other opt out/in Banks < 60 years & family Pensioners. The petition calls for the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to audit PCDA.

Signatories to this petition include a former Chief of Army Staff and three-star veterans, among others. A former Adjutant General of the Indian Army says, “Good question. What is the increase in CGDA establishment all over India with the rolling out of SPARSH. How did it translate into an increase in budget? What was being paid to Banks for disbursement of pensions prior to 2017? Has it ceased, or continues as hitherto fore in another veil?”

The petition demands CAG to conduct an urgent Financial and Performance Audit of PCDA (P) Prayagraj’s SPARSH mismanagement. Audit SPARSH rollout, PCDA-P’s expenditure, and systemic failures denying 30 lakhs plus veterans their pensions, as RTI grievances are dodged.

Would the above make any difference with the PCDA (P) empire created pan-India in full connivance with the MoD under the tutelage of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh? Would the CAG be ordered to undertake an audit of PCDA (P) as required and if so, how fair would that audit be?  Isn’t it very noticeable that in the last two years, CAG has stopped pointing out corruption in the DRDO, what to talk of squandering money in trying to get fighter jet spares from fake sources (https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/hal-loses-rs-55-lakh-after-payment-for-fighter-jet-parts-to-fake-company-7938074), Armed Forces shortages and lack of adequate budgetary allocations, while MoD talks of “self-audit”? What can be more bizarre?   

A veteran-scholar wrote some months back, “Having seen both ruling parties for seven decades, the fact is that army doesn't matter to either of them since it doesn't make a vote bank like SC, ST, OBC, farmers, labour organizations. But then it is because of the lack of b***s in top military leadership which has led to the present state of apathy where the army has become second to even CAPFs.” He also then wrote that the government has infected the military hierarchy in such a manner that the fence has begun to eat the crop. He now asks, when a retired three-star is placed under the NSA for 8-9 months (like in mommy’s womb) and then elevated to a four-star CDS, won’t he bend backwards to every whim and fancies of politicians? Little wonder everyone wants to board the gravy train with ‘deep selection’ instituted (https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/op-eds/aboard-the-gravy-train/).

Finally, how far will the government apathy towards the military stretch under the present dispensation, given that shame is not in the lexicon of politicians? Your guess is as good as mine.

The author is an Indian Army veteran. Views expressed are personal.