Ravish Kumar is no stranger to agenda-peddling. In fact, he has made it the trademark of his journalism. No matter how grave the issue is, Ravish Kumar can be counted on for taking it to absurd levels. However, he might just have come out with his ‘piece de resistance’ in terms of twisted, sick and mindless agenda-peddling. In the wake of Pulwama attacks, instead of offering sincere condolences to the martyrs, Ravish chose to politicize the attacks by targeting the government based on made up facts.
Ravish Kumar has gone into several details in his ‘enlightening post’ but we would like to refer to a particular part which relates to two things primarily, the nomenclature of the deceased soldiers and the status of their pension.
Ravish Kumar herein has stated that’s its highly unfair that CRPF soldiers are not bestowed with the title of a “Shahid” or, a “Martyr” by the government. The statement is, “Poorn sainik ki tarah ladhkar bhi yeh ardh sainik hai aur jaan dekar bhi yeh shahid nahi hai.” This roughly translates to “Even after fighting like a complete soldier, they are referred to as paramilitary and even after giving their life; they aren’t given the title of a martyr.” This indeed would be unfair if this was the situation, but it seems that Ravish Kumar isn’t quite updated with the current status. Firstly, CRPF does not come under paramilitary forces in India but is one of the five CAPF (Central Armed Police Force) as reclassified by the Home Ministry from March 2011 onwards. Therefore, they aren’t “ardh sainik” at all to begin with. Moreover, by a notification dated 22nd December, 2015, by the Ministry of Home Affairs, The Ministry of Defence has informed that the word ‘Martyr’ is not used in reference to any of the casualties in Indian Armed Forces. Thereby, conclusively proving that the CRPF Jawans are being treated at par with all the soldiers in the Indian Armed Forces.
With the nomenclature situation resolved, we come down to our second clarification in Ravish Kumar’s article. It has been stated, “Inhe pension tak nahi hai. Shahadat ke baad patni aur uska parivaar kaise chalega.” This roughly translates as, “They don’t have any designated pension to support their families after their demise.” We would again like to refer to the same notification by the Ministry of Home Affairs wherein the Ministry of Defence has informed that the families of the Indian Armed forces personnel would be given full family pension under the Liberalized Pensionary Award (LPA) rules and lump sum ex-gratia compensation of Rupees fifteen lakh as per rules in addition to other benefits admissible.
Ravish Kumar needs to realize that he has a public responsibility to check all his facts before publishing anything. He is misleading the unsuspecting public. This is the kind of journalism which leads to false opinions and is disrespectful to the soldiers and their families.
