T he story of India’s Central Government employees and pensioners today is not one of privilege, but of patience betrayed and promises broken. Their decades of service, which once formed the silent backbone of India’s governance, now stand discounted in the name of fiscal caution. Beneath the glittering slogans of economic might and trillion-dollar dreams, a growing discontent brews — a moral protest against the slow erosion of fairness. The Terms of Reference (ToR) of 8th Central Pay Commission (CPC) approved by the Cabinet on 28 October, widely disclose that the government’s words and deeds are increasingly drifting apart.

A closer reading of the ToR reveals how far the vision of the 8th CPC has strayed from its predecessors. The Sixth and Seventh CPCs were grounded in the belief that

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