Doubts that are not cleared spread fast like fire.

A tete-tete between two colleagues (birds of the same feather)

My friend !

Doubts that are not cleared  spread fast  like fire. 
It is time the fire gets extinguished .

Yes.My friend. You go ahead. 

"You said You were surprised when I started this blog. To be honest, I was also surprised when I hit the idea of starting this blog."

Please bring me your ear a little closer."
 'My stand has always been that GNS stands for ALL, i repeat ALL class I officers.  

But, as  I heard that he presented only a list of members of his association only, for the purpose of obtaining that 20% of Interim Relief , I was pained.  But that feeling happened to be part of a passing cloud. 

 No sooner, did I realise that did not make a difference  in my appreciation for him and his efforts to reach his goal of justice to class 1 community in general and to those who are mostly affected to begin with. 

Unluckly, GNS does not have a blog to  focus  his stand when other colleagues of him jettisoned  him.

At this point, let me add that I am a post 97 retiree and do not stand to benefit in anyway by his prepositions in the SC Case.

When I attended the AGB meeting also, last month, when there were great deliberations on the aftermath of the SC Judgment, it was just a  hope that the revised petition of Federation would be so modified as to envelope  the interests of post 97 , POST -2002, POST -2007  TO post 2012 RETIREES IN FUTURE....

I mean the issue of UPDATION.

THE AUTHENTIC NEWS IS THAT IT DOES. AND IN NO SMALL MEASURE.  

NOW, FROM ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE, 

. 

We may win the case 
or 

God unwilling  LOSE ALSO.  ? 
ALL PREDICTIONS ARE BUT SPECULATIONS. 

But  I am looking at what happens around in a different perspective. 

it is different. You may not believe. 

But it is WHAT I BELIEVE.

 No doubt I need money.just as everyone. 

 For my wife's illness alone, i spend more than Rs.7000 p.m. regular medicines no reimbursement possible.

At the same time, I also realise that there are  things in the world where  money has little value.

My admiration for my friend GNS is one such. Five decades old. 

 I cant measure his contribution to the welfare of Class I community  in terms of what I am going to get when I get it at all. 

The Reason for this new blog is  simply this.

I could not just bear the offending hurting words against GNS .

Why need a person who always stood for GOOD, GREAT AND MAGNIFICENT things, should be hurt

unceremoniously by his own colleagues  who did/do so without   verifying the facts ?

That made me think why not I start a blog exclusively to protect the interests of class I officers (Retired) in general and GNS in particular. 

To me, GNS is not an individual. He is an institution. He carries out the collective wisdom of the Body he is to carry along.  Let us wish him well.

Apart from that, from  a macro level, this new blog  will further lead to better liaison , co-operation and co-ordination amongst all pensioners-here the retired class 1 officers. 

This blog will therefore have the sole and single objective of bringing back the sense of unity amongst us all. 

And that is all. 

My good Friend! R U hearing? 

I have been your fan right through these forty years ? 

How do you feel?"

"Wait .......     U made the case.....

Listen to me .Listening is part of empathy, you yourself said at the class room. 

And Empathy is not Sympathy. Empathy is understanding the other man from his perspective. "

"My good friend !  U always remember your HRD days.!

I now recollect that our MD and Chairman said  the same  in the class room.".

"Let me finish."

"That is fine."

"You have also been saying READ RUSSEL BEFORE YOU CRITICIZE HIM. 

Now listen:

Two points around GNS you made brought me back to this key-board. You say you were pained when GNS supplied the list of members to  CO. There were many who felt like you did. But the inside story you may not know. Before submitting the List GNS took appointment with the MD of LIC who was on visit and spoke to her  pleading fervently that the narrow interpretation of giving the benefit of 20 percent to only members was terribly faulty and that the Delhi HC verdict was won for all similarly placed officers. The MD simply took the position that she had not applied mind to the issue, and had left the matter to the legal people who had taken the directions of the Solicitor General on this. Later when internally we discussed, it came about that this could be LIC's ploy to get back to Court and say the List was not provided and so they could not make the payment as had been ordered. GNS for one stood for not providing a handle to LIC to get away with not paying. So it was decided that we shall take this matter further ithe next  stage of our fight and not give LIC an excuse to stay away from paying. GNS believed that getting something for some ,was better than standing rigid on a principle and  not taking what was offered. He said let us take what is given and launch our next salvo thereafter. That stand made a lot of sense ,and now, as he expected, the SC itself has clearly spelt out that all similarly placed pensioners will get the 40 percent interim benefit!

Now on to the next point about the fighting for the post 97 pensioners. GNS has been portrayed very unfairly by some of his less principled detractors that he stood only for the benefit of pre97 pensioners. 

I have been listening to GNS all along, and can assure you  that he was being extremely sensible about how he took forward our matter in the appeal before the SC. Many who were caught in a fit of emotion could not easily follow why GNS insisted on not adding a Prayer at Appeal stage in the SC about Up-gradation. 

He knew that his 2006 case filed in Delhi HC was only on Discrimination in the DA principle applied to Pre 97 pensioners, as that was the pre-dominant concern at that time. It was only later in 2007 that Asthana  himself added to his 1999 case thro an affidavit filed in 2007 making additional Prayers which included the Up-gradation point.

 It became a live issue once the Jaipur judgement in 2010 allowed Asthana's original Petition along with the additional Affidavit of 2007. 

So if you see the historical perspective you will understand that the point about Up-gradation came up after GNS had gone up with his 2006 case before Delhi HC. 

For the same reason he could not later artificially contrive to somehow bring it in at the Appeal stage in SC when his Appeal would really have to press home the only point on which he had a favourable verdict from the Delhi HC. He was at times too solidly practical for others to understand that what he meant was to consolidate on gains already won and then take up the issue of up-gradation as a separate and full fledged case to the Court.

It was that monumental original case with it's very specific 

Prayers which stated clearly  the rule 3 of Appendix 4 to Pension Rules as offending the article 14 of the Constitution and was Discriminatory that really gave us a last minute oxygen in the SC, which otherwise was in a mood to set aside all the Appeals to enable a closure to our hopes even on the simple matter of DA discrimination! 

It was that Prayer of ours in the Delhi HC that has given us this extended super over of a chance.

And now GNS , the clever legal Brain he is, says we can go full blast asking for the principle of up-gradation thro the principle of Parity so beautifully documented in the 7th Pay comn. Report, which says that in order to keep the parity of Retired pensioners with the market conditions, an exercise of notionally re-fixing the Pensions by the merger of Basic with DA, as is done for in-service employees, should be done as and when there is a re-fixation due to Revision carried out for them. Now this comes in handy when the SC had virtually narrowed down the scope of reference to only the DA discrimination as applicable to pension Rule 3. So the post 97 pensioners' matter also can come under the scope of discrimination as applicable to Pension Rules 3 and 4. Now, this is the artful method in which GNS steers his action. He is both very practical and knowledgeable in how Courts go about cases. The Amendment Petition filed in Delhi HC by the Federation. Has been drafted on these lines and I think we stand a good chance with this approach.

So judging GNS from a little distance carries dangers of misgivings. While he appears rigid at times, he really knows what he is doing. But for him we wouldn't be in with this extended chance. 

In fact he was the one who quickly briefed our Senior Advocate sitting by his side in the SC to stand up to point out that we had indeed agitated the discriminatory aspect of Pension Rule 3 which was being projected as not done. 

GNS

And mind you he was within 15 days of the Hospitalization and was hardly able to carry himself when he still chose not to take a chance by not going to Delhi for the Hearing on the 31st of March.

I have been working closely with him and I know how he works. He is quite democratic too in that he would wait for views of others before taking a position.

 He is a phenomenal worker at his age and stage and one of his kind.

The Enlightenment springs from:

                                                 

Your views and Suggestions to enhance quality of this blog, Your Grievances as a Class 1 pensioner of LIC as also your appeals to them are WELCOME. It is our request that remarks need to be polite and friendly and never offending or hurting the feelings of fellow pensioners.