The ₹35,000 Soldier and the Seven-Star Revellers — Who Is the Real Patriot?

On the Siachen Glacier or the icy peaks of Ladakh, temperatures at night plummet to minus forty to minus fifty degrees Celsius.

The cold there is so terrifying that if you were to touch your rifle’s barrel with a bare finger even by mistake, the skin of your finger would stick to the metal and tear away (metal frostbite). There is such a severe lack of oxygen in the air that an ordinary person would start vomiting blood after walking just two steps.

Look at the face of that 20- or 22-year-old youth standing vigil through the night in that terrifying and inhospitable environment. He is not the son of some billionaire; he is the son of an impoverished farmer from eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, or Uttarakhand. All he receives in the name of a monthly salary is a mere ₹35,000 to ₹40,000. He knows that if an enemy bullet comes from across the border, he will take it on his chest with a smile so that 140 crore citizens of this country can sleep peacefully in their homes.

Now contrast this with the scene in the seven-star hotels, pubs, and clubs of Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

There, people riding in cars worth crores, who maintain an army of CAs [chartered accountants] to save on taxes, who splurge more on a single sip of foreign liquor than that soldier’s entire monthly salary, scream drunkenly into the night—“This country is going to the dogs!”—and declare themselves the nation’s ‘elite’ and arbiters of its destiny!

In his timeless book ‘Anokha Bharat’, N. Singh asks: Who is the real master and true patriot of this country—that brave soldier earning ₹35,000, or the parasitic class sitting in seven-star hotels looting the nation?

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Slashing Military Pensions versus Lifelong Gravy for Politicians

Today, debates on nationalism are raging across the country, but the decisions taken at the policy level are spine-chilling:

1. Agniveer Scheme (Agnipath Scheme): In the name of reducing the ‘pension burden’ on the defence budget, four-year contractual recruitment was introduced. At the age of 24, 75% of these youths will be booted out of the military without any pension, without ex-serviceman status, and without any social security!
2. Multiple Pensions for Politicians: On the other hand, if an MLA [Member of Legislative Assembly] or MP [Member of Parliament] becomes a member of the House even for a single day, they receive lakhs in pensions for life, along with lifelong perks of free air travel, free train travel, luxurious bungalows, and free medical care! If they are elected three times, they draw three separate pensions! Is there no ‘burden’ of these parasites on the nation’s budget?
3. The Martyr’s Family’s Struggle: When a soldier returns to his village draped in the tricolour, politicians stage a drama of presenting a cheque for ₹50 lakh and a job offer, getting photographed before cameras. But six months down the line, that very martyr’s brave widow is forced to endure the leering gazes of bureaucrats and widespread bribery in government offices just to secure the allotment of a petrol pump or a job.

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The Soldier on the Border versus the Seven-Star Culture: A Bitter Comparison

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The Bitter Truth from the Book: N. Singh’s Stirring Clarion Call

Author N. Singh writes in his book ‘Anokha Bharat’ (which he has dedicated to the Indian Army and the Indian farmer):

“True patriotism is not born in speeches; it takes birth in freezing, icy winds and in the slush of the fields. When a soldier earning ₹35,000 returns wrapped in the tricolour, the entire nation weeps; but when billionaires flee after siphoning off the country’s money, the system bows before them. We have reduced nationalism to the screeching and howling of TV studio anchors, whereas the real scripture of nationalism is written in the tears of that soldier’s widow, who, holding a six-month-old orphaned baby in her lap, lights her husband’s funeral pyre. A country where respect for a soldier is confined to raising slogans only during war, while in peacetime his pension is slashed with a pair of scissors, can never become a Vishwaguru [world leader]!”
— N. Singh (Anokha Bharat, pp. 164–165)

The author further challenges:

“If the government must save on pension expenditure, let it begin with Parliament and the State Legislative Assemblies! Abolish all pensions for politicians, and peg their salaries to that of an army Havildar [sergeant]; then let us see how many politicians enter politics to serve the nation!”
— (Anokha Bharat, p. 168)

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Four National Resolves for the Honour and Security of Soldiers

1. Flawless and Complete Restoration of ‘One Rank, One Pension’ (OROP): Provide a full guarantee of genuine OROP for military personnel and JCOs [Junior Commissioned Officers] without any legal hurdles.
2. Review and Regularisation of the Agniveer Scheme: Instead of the four-year contractual model, absorb at least 50% to 75% of Agniveers into regular service, and grant full military pensions and martyr status in the event of supreme sacrifice.
3. Immediate and Total Ban on Politicians’ Pensions: Completely abolish the multiple-pension system for MPs and MLAs; no pension should be granted even for a single term.
4. Legal and Social Security for Soldiers’ Families: The Central Government must directly bear the entire education cost of the children of martyred or injured soldiers from Class 1 through to higher education, and establish dedicated fast-track courts for their families.

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A Question to Ponder (The Book’s Message)

Do we wish to remain an ungrateful nation that advances arguments to cut budgets even on the shroud of a soldier laying down his life at the border, while splurging thousands of crores on the decadent luxuries of its corrupt politicians?

To understand the sacrifice of the soldier, the true challenges facing the Indian defence system, and the very essence of genuine nationalism, this chapter from N. Singh’s timeless book ‘Anokha Bharat’ ought to be read by every patriotic Indian.