For Petty Gain

Letter to Congress President: OROP BillboardDesignation of Maj TC Rao is President Ex Servicemen Cell (DPCC)Lt Gen Raj Kadyan, PVSM, AVSM, VSMChairman262, Sector-17A, Gurgaon – 122 001IESM/OROP/2009, July 2009Dear Madam,I draw your kind attention to the publicity bill boards that have appeared recently at many public places in Delhi. In these one Major TC Rao (retd) has expressed gratitude for the grant of ‘one rank one pension’. Photos of a few political leaders, including yourself, appear on top of the advertisement. A copy of the advertisement is attached for your perusal.Major Rao uses the honorific of President Ex Servicemen Cell (DPCC). It is not known whether he is using the medium of propaganda for furtherance of his personal ambitions or whether the effort has the official backing of the Congress party or the government; his being a Congress functionary prima facie suggests the latter. Whatever it is, my aim in addressing this to you is to point out that the claim made in the advertisement if false. The fact is – and is well known to the environment – that the government is not implementing ‘one rank one pension’. If the government is indeed granting ‘one rank one pension’, all pensioners have to be brought at par, rank-to-rank and service-to-service. Merely removing the differences between the pensions of distant past and recent past cannot be construed as ‘one rank one pension’.The false propaganda has caused great anguish among the Ex Servicemen community. It is also hurting the image of the Congress Party. I would request that the bill boards be taken off from public places.With best regardsYours sincerely,Sd xxxx(Raj Kadyan)Smt Sonia GandhiPresident Indian National Congress10, Janpath, New Delhi