Aug

20

History is replete with examples and anecdotes of soldiers braving the ravages of winter, and having had to fight frostbite more so than their real enemies. In the early 1800s, Napolean is said to have gone to war with almost a quarter million men and coming back with only a few hundreds of his soldiers fully functional, thanks to the bitter winters and the frostbites. During the first war war, several thousand allied soldiers were said to be getting out of commission every month, on account of field accidents mostly related to frostbites. In the Korean war in 1950s, thousands of American soldiers were said to have suffered form frostbites resulting from the subzero conditions.

For Indian soldiers who stand guard at the Siachen glacier, days are bitter, and the nights are very very cold. Atop the 21000 feet high inhospitable battlefield, India’s soldiers routinely battle frostbites and chilblains.

Back in 1992-93, in the aftermath of Operation Meghdoot, Sultan Singh, a Naik in the Indian army, was posted at Siachen glacier’s Sonam post. He suffered frostbite, and ended up with his toes amputated as result.

He had to retire from the army in 1994, and so Ex-Naik Sultan Singh now asked the defense ministry that he be granted disability pension on the grounds of being a disabled soldier. The bureaucrats at the defense ministry disagreed and told him that his frostbite injuries did not merit a consideration as a war injury. So the soldier appealed to the high court. Now the high court bench comprising of justices Kaul and Garg, has come back with a verdict, favoring the soldier’s argument, and asking the defense ministry to consider the frostbite as a qualified parameter for grants of war injury disability pensions.

The court went a bit further, and opined that the frostbite injury should be treated as a battle scar. “…it is not necessary that the person must suffer a bullet injury in view of the definition of a battle casualty…”, said the court.

All Sultan Singh had asked the defense ministry for was an ex-gratia payment of Rs. 1 lakh (about $2K) for his injuries. The defense ministry, it seems, chose to face a protracted legal battle, spending several times that amount in court fees and precious court time. Under any other circumstance, a stand of this nature by a government ministry could have been considered as measure to prevent a precedent-setting decision in an uncommon case. But this, was not any other circumstance. This was the defense ministry trying to not pay a soldier who had been risking his life on the highest battlefield on the planet, standing guard for the rest of this nation. But the IAS smarty-alecs at the defense ministry, themselves drawing fat salaries, doing their mundane desk-jobs wearing woolen sweaters and winter coats battling the moderate warm winters of New Delhi, brushed off Sultan Singh’s genuine pleas.

When a nation and its servants start dishonoring those defending its freedom and sovereignty, that nation needs to start worrying about the consequences of a morale mishap among its troops. History is replete with examples of mightier armies falling and failing when the soldiers in the trenches were ignored or forgotten.


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2 Comments so far

  1. Vinoy Kumar Sinha on August 20, 2008 2:32 pm

    Yes, it was indeed very cruel of Babus to have fought the contention of the soldier and deny him his due. The High Court has done well to order him payment for the loss of a part of his body.I don’t think money is a proper substtute of the toe he lost due to frost bite and no amount can be enough for it but even then..The High Court decision is a lesson the government should take for the future.As for these Babus, will they tell us as to how many millions they theselves sanction for the luxuries of their political masters and for themselves every month?

  2. pealrypynckal on October 21, 2008 6:23 pm

    Hello! isordil

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