Rank Pay is a scheme implemented by the Rajiv Gandhi led Indian National Congress (I) Government in 1986, in the wake of 4th Central Pay Commission (4CPC), that reduced the basic-pay, or grade pay, of seven armed officers ranks of 2nd Lieutenant, Lieutenant, captain, majors, lt-colonel, colonels, and brigadiers, and their equivalent in the Air Force and the Navy by fixed amounts designated as 'rank-pay'. The reduction in the basic-pay, the established basis of determining rank equivalences between armed forces officers and civilian and police counterparts, altered long established historical grade-pay equivalences or parities between armed forces officers and police officer, which was an accepted principle since 1947 for determination of armed forces grade pay, and which was 'further cemen