As has often been the case with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcements, which were once explained by his own party president Amit Shah as ‘jumla’, his latest announcement about granting Short Service Commission (SSC) women officers’ permanent commission (PC) has clearly caught the Defence Ministry by surprise. Even though Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman immediately tweeted a line welcoming Modi’s announcement, her ministry is still looking for “greater clarity on the subject”.
In May, Defence Ministry had filed a detailed affidavit in the Supreme Court, explaining that it requires six months to formulate modalities and enforce the changes and alterations in the three forces to grant PC to women officers and open new streams of induction for them. This followed the apex court’s direction to file an affidavit after the BJP government opposed the Delhi High Court’s 2010 order granting permanent commission to women officers recruited in Army on SSC.
On April 13 this year, the Supreme Court bench had pulled up the central government for harassing SSC women officers by opposing their plea for PC. The judge had also questioned the hesitation on central government’s part to give PC to women in combat roles.
NewsCentral24X7 has learnt that the Defence Ministry told enquiring journalists that “the contours of implementation of the announcement” made by PM Modi “is being finalised by the Ministry”. The ministry also reportedly told agitated journalists that it will only have greater clarity on the subject by tomorrow.
It is believed that the Defence Ministry is yet to decide the “implementation details” of the announcement about which the three defence services seem to be equally clueless. It seems the announcement was made by Modi without any preparation from the government. The 3,000 or so women SSC officers affected by PM’s announcement would now be wondering if it was another jumla from Modi.