Despite the brickbats received during the OROP agitation, it’s now finally turning out that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is ready to keep his promise of “not deciding solely on the advice of the bureaucrats” in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) especially in service matters. In a first, a retired service officer has been appointed as consultant in the Raksha Mantri’s office to handle “interaction” between the MoD and service headquarters.
Air Marshal Prasad P Reddy, who retired a few months back as Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee, would be looking after “coordination between the ministry and the Services, and assisting the defense minister in having a better understanding of Services’ matters.” The NDA government and Parrikar in particular had a harrowing time last year negotiating with the veterans on the issue of one-rank-one-pension (OROP).
“Despite his best intentions the Minister was not trusted by the agitating soldiers thanks to the lack of belief in the working of the MoD, which is dominated by the bureaucracy. A retired soldier would be able to put forth the issues in the right perspective before the political leadership,” said a well-placed source. “For the BJP, the defence personnel are a huge constituency spread across the country. They were steadfast in support to the NDA in the last Lok Sabha polls. However, the bonhomie between the government and soldiers were marred thanks to a very unfortunate agitation on the issue of OROP. The leadership realized that the government needed a better line of communication with its
loyal constituency.
The Air Marshal would have a big role in re-establishing that trust between the soldiers and the government,” added the source. Reddy, an ex-test pilot, was handling the tri-services’ planning and acquisitions in his last assignment. He is an alumnus of Rashtriya Indian Military College, National Defence Academy and Defence Services Staff College, Wellington.