Letter from Lt Gen SK Bahri to President of India

Subject: Letter to the President; Duties Of Supreme Commander

 

The attached letter was sent to the President of India by speed post yesterday. It has also been forwarded to the RM and the PM with the following covering letter. The two letters have been forwarded to the media also for publication and separately to leaders of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Any of you who may have contacts in the media may also do his/her bit to broadcast it further.

Regards

Satish Bahri

 Dear Hon'ble Raksha Mantri,

Enclosed is a letter I sent on 15 Apr 2013 by speed post to the President of India in continuation of my chain of letters to the PM, you, FM and the Law Minister on the subject of justice to the armed forces, be it status, emoluments or being sidelined in the decision making processes of the country, specially, in the field of National Security. We, the last resort the country has for ensuring its security, are being ignored totally and only called upon to pull the government's chestnuts out of the fire when the situation has gone out of its control. Despite that we find that the soldier serving or retired is being persistently alienated according to, it seems, a diabolic plan. You as the RAKSHA MANTRI have a  duty to perform, as the other ministers, incl the PM, can blithely shrug off their responsibility in a crisis situation, as has happened in numerous cases in the recent past.

 

Yesterday I met a number of veterans from UP and their anger was so evident that it perturbed me. But despite my warnings to this effect in my earlier communications not a single move has been made by the goverment to alleviate the grievances of ex servicemen. Unless some quick moves are made by the government you are shortening the fuse of their patience. The information obtained by some of our colleagues through RTI applications is so revealing that it appears that there is a concerted effort by the bureaucracy, ably abetted by the poltical setup, to deny rightful dues to the soldiers. Does the government want the soldiers to fight an enemy in the event of a war or, keep looking back to see who is stabbing them in their backs? Decision is yours.

 

Regards

 

Yours sincerely

 

Lt Gen SK Bahri

Chairman

Alliance of Ex Servicemen Organisations defence

Rare Army pics

Some rare Army pics

hyderabad contingent regtl center band in toochi..1895.

Indian Soldiers and Elephants, Multan 1898

Military Encampment in the Razmak, 1898

Five Indian Soldiers near Miranshah, Tochi Valley, Waziristan, 1898

5 Sikh Regt in Mardan, 1895

5 Sikh Regt in Mardan, 1895 after an operation in Tirah Valley

Photograph by Randolph Bezzant Holmes (1888-1973), India, North West Frontier, 

Indian army camel corp in miran shah.

From an album, of 74 photographs compiled by Neville John Gordon Cameron, 

1st Bn Queen's Own Cameron Highlander

a British officer with his family,1877.  Mooltan

football match 1903..(surprisingly RACE COURSE MURREE)

Officers of the 2nd Batallion, Worcestershire Regiment, Waziristan, British India, 1940. The vehicle is a Crossley "Indian Pattern" armoured car. These were developed in the interwar period for internal security duties in Northern India, based on a Crossley truck chassis. Substantial British and Indian Army forces were occupied in internal security in India during WW2, as the possibility of insurgency (encouraged by the proximity of Japanese forces from 1942) was a substantial concerrn. "Indian Pattern" armoured cars remained in service until Indian and Pakistani independence in 1947. The model here (like most others) was reconditioned in 1939, in the course of which the worn-out Crossley chassis was replaced with a Chevrolet truck chassis.

Sikh Cavalry Officers, British India Army,  attending Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1873 in London, England

Photograph of Peshawar, with a view across the cantonment towards St John's Church and the distant mountains of the Khyber Pass, taken in 1878 by John Burke. John Burke accompanied the Peshawar Valley Field Force, one of three British Anglo-Indian army columns deployed in the Second Afghan War (1878-80), despite being rejected for the role of official photographer. He financed his trip by advance sales of his photographs 'illustrating the advance from Attock to Jellalabad'.

British and Indian soldiers with elephants, Multan, 1899

punjab frontier cavalry,1878..D I KHAN

gurkha band in quetta,1902

Churchill introduced to sikh VCOs in shillong,1945.

4th Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army. Group portrait of the Sikh officers and British captains of the 14th Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army. Multan, Punjab, India (Pakistan), 1919

1st estab of indian troops in out skirts of nowshera (probably present day risalpur),1907

1/66 punjabi's  band in abbottabad,1895..

Deputy Commissioner Camblepore with his tamed tiger..1895

Commander in Chief of India Gen. Monro + staff inspecting barracks Gharial, nr. Murree India 1917..General Monro served as C-in-C India from 1916 through 1920, and was in charge during the 3rd Afghan War of 1919. His career was tarnished by the Amritsar Massacre..

Indo-Afghan border 1898

Abbottabad Mil Academy, 1892

Soldiers Home Peshawar

Military hospital Nowshera,1888,the largest and last major hospital during the AFGHAN campain..1878..

Queen mother inspecting indian troops Delhi,1903..during DEHLI DARBAR

Military Service 1914 - 1939: Lieutenant-Colonel Montgomery, Commanding Officer of the 17th (Empire) Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers, with his officers outside a Bierstube in Durren during the occupation of the Ruhr.,from here he moved to command and staff college quetta as a DS,,

Military Service 1914 - 1939: Captain Bernard Montgomery DSO with a fellow officer of 104 Infantry Brigade, 35 Division, with which he served from January 1915 until early 1917. He was awarded the DSO for conspicuous gallantry on 13 October 1914 during the Battle of the Aisne in which he was wounded.

(Contributed by Mrs Zenobia Panthaki)