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WIRES SANJAY DUTT APPOINTED SP GENERAL SECRETARY


National MAGAZINE | OCT 27, 2008

Elsewhere in
Outlook
ANDHRA PRADESH
Poll Pickles
From NTR Jr's nuisance
value to golden lures for
voters, from competition for
the MIM to doctored video
tapes of opposition
candidates, from tickets on April-06 2009
sale to squabbling allies, it's
all heating up in Andhra
Pradesh
VENUGOPAL PILLAI
Web | Mar 31, 2009 Regulars

OPINION
RAJINDER PURI
Will This Poll Jitender Gupta Delhi Diary
Change No salve: Gen Kapoor By Vinod Mehta
India? EXCLUSIVE: ARMED FORCES PAY PARITY
Making poll forecasts is a
hazardous exercise best left Nurse A Habit
to psephologists. Anything to keep rank. Service chiefs now have knives
Speculating on post-poll
politics is even dicier. And out for allied organisations.
yet, the critical phase of
Glitterati
SAIKAT DATTA
transition through which
India is passing makes
forethought imperative. Four
factors suggest that we | E-MAIL | ONE PAGE FORMAT | FEEDBACK: SEND - READ |
could be poised for a
paradigm shift. Operation Downgrade Polscape
Web | Mar 28, 2009

 Gen Kapoor doesn't want nursing officers to get the


HARYANA, HIMACHAL, PUNJAB same pay and status as army doctors. He feels parity
CHANDER SUTA DOGRA will hit patient care. Nurses may not obey instructions of
Poll Pourri doctors junior to them. Letters
If the BJP has the albatross  Navy chief Sureesh Mehta wants central police
of Varun Gandhi round its organisations including the coast guard downgraded.
neck, the Congress is no Feels the navy is a superior force.
less unburdened after Previous Issue
having given tickets in Delhi
to Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan ***
Kumar, accused in the 1984
Sikh riots.
Web | Mar 27, 2009

ELECTIONS 2009
M oney can be the great spoiler. The cliche has come to
life all over again as the recommendations of the sixth Pay
CHANDER SUTA DOGRA
Commission go through the usual share of debates, arguments
The Dera Vote Bank and reviews.
The Dera Sacha Sauda is
once again in the news. Its This is never more so fraught March 30, 2009
followers vote as a than among the troops, where
collective. In February 2007, "Why must officers the desire to corner more money Magazine Archive
Punjab assembly election who have never and status has seen at least two
the Dera supported the served adverse service chiefs trying to pull down Yearwise
Congress. Now, the Akalis postings get special 'sister' services in a bid to satisfy 2009 2008 2007 2006
are desperate to snatch the allowances?" bruised egos.
Dera votes. Radical Sikh 2005 2004 2003 2002
organizations are gunning 2001 2000 1999 1998
for Baba Gurmeet Ram Leading the pack is
1997 1996 1995
Rahim
army chief General Deepak Kapoor, who shot off a letter with
Web | Mar 27, 2009
detailed annexures to cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar
on June 20. The chief, instead of focusing on the needs of his
CRIME: SARAVANA BHAVAN men, delved on the need to downgrade the military nursing
Nemesis On His services (MNS). In his letter, a copy of which is with Outlook,
Kapoor argues that the effort of the pay commission to "equate
Platter the status of nurses" with "doctors will seriously impact on the
A restaurateur and his son functional relationship" between them. He went on to describe
sully with their crimes a the parity as a grave threat to the "command in military
success built with sweat
hospitals".
PUSHPA IYENGAR
Magazine | Apr 06, 2009
The essence of Kapoor's Click
burden was this: if Here
FOR THE RECORD nurses—who are also For
JUSTICE D.H. WAGHELA commissioned officers— Large Discount Shopping
The Gujarat High are considered on par with Image

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20081027&fname=Army+chiefs+letters+... 4/2/2009
Nurse A Habit : outlookindia.com Page 2 of 3

doctors, then it will have Letter against officer nurses


Shoes Online
Court Order serious implications on
Cancelling The Bail patient care. In short, a nurse of the same rank as a specialist UK Shopping Online
Of Mayaben doctor may not follow the doctor's instructions just because she Home & Garden Decor
Surendrabhai believes she is of the same rank! As arguments go, this was as
specious as they come, leaving an incredulous cabinet
Kodnani
secretary to put a "What is this?" remark on the file before Tata Sky Actve
'...prima facie, the
forwarding it to the finance ministry. STAR News
allegations of inciting or
encouraging the mobs into Go Directly To Your
wanton display of hatred, For a hierarchy-conscious service like the army, it is important Favourite News.
destruction of properties and that the sanctity of ranks is maintained within the service (as Control How & When
killing of innocent men, well as parity with other government services). However, few in To Watch News.
women and children the government are buying the army chief's argument on the www.tataskydth.in
produce a chilling picture of nurses-on-par issue. "Have you ever heard of a nurse
communal violence on an Free SME Chat
overruling the diagnosis of a specialist doctor just because she
unprecedented scale, Services
was equal or senior in rank?" asks a senior finance ministry
leaving on the psyche of An Online channel
official. "The fact is, all the commission recommended was that
ordinary citizens scars which where you get advice
might take decades to fade' if nurses have been given ranks, let them also enjoy the same on Small Businesses
Web | Mar 27, 2009 pay and privileges of their equivalent officers. Why have an in India
institutionalised apartheid among all of them?" india.smetoolkit.org/expertchat

ELECTIONS '09
Mate Check
Trusted allies turn away,
making this a poll of glorious
uncertainty
SABA NAQVI
Magazine | Apr 06, 2009

BANGALORE BYTE
SUGATA
SRINIVASARAJU
The
Patriarchal
Presence
In the past, there was a
mass leader to work at the
grassroots, and a more
suave operator to network at
the national-level: Gowda- Navy chief's letter on the coast guard
Hegde, Karunanidhi-Maran,
Moopanar-Chidambaram...
The equations are changing, But Gen Kapoor seems keen on maintaining the "inferiority" of
witness the ongoing tussle the nursing officers despite the fact that they serve under the
between Yeddyruppa and same conditions as army doctors. "The seemingly innocuous
Ananth Kumar correction in the pay scales," argues Kapoor, "will remove the
Web | Mar 26, 2009 basic difference between the titularity of members of the MNS
ranks and the entitled ranks of Service officers".

In fact, while several of the services' grievances are legitimate,


the army chief's letter has taken the debate in an unwelcome
direction. And it isn't an isolated case. Naval chief Sureesh
Mehta, in a note dated September 1 (COSC/1940), pointed out
that the coast guard and the Central Police Organisations
(CPOS) were inferior to the navy and should be treated as
Nature's Beauty, such.
Man's Wrath
Debarshi Dasgupta visits
Kandhamal and finds that
the wounds from last year's
riots are still fresh...
DEBARSHI DASGUPTA
Web | Mar 26, 2009

UPA/NDA
A Destructive
Dilemma
Varun's speech again brings
into focus the BJP's lasting (1 of 2)
dichotomy: vitriol versus
canny pragmatism
| E-MAIL | ONE PAGE FORMAT | FEEDBACK: SEND - READ |
SABA NAQVI
Magazine | Apr 06, 2009
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http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20081027&fname=Army+chiefs+letters+... 4/2/2009

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