In the battle of ballots, major political parties in Punjab are trying to defeat their rivals by winning over the ex-servicemen. The SAD-BJP Government in Punjab is targeting the fraternity with sops, while the Congress has fired the salvo of One Rank One Pension.
On the day when the Congress has organised a gala function to “thank” Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for paving way for One Rank One Pension scheme, the SAD-BJP Government announced to cut down taxes on products of CSD canteen, and doing away with the property tax on their residential properties, among other things. With both the sides engaged in a tug-of-war to pull in a huge vote bank of the army personnel, and ex-servicemen, it’s the fraternity that is getting all the benefits.
The Punjab Government, in its Cabinet meeting approved to abolish property tax on residential property owned by the serving Defence personnel and the veterans — fulfilling the promises made by the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on foundation stone laying ceremony of the prestigious war memorial at Amritsar held recently. Besides, the Cabinet also gave its go-ahead to reduce rate of tax on sale and purchase of goods through CSD from 6.05 to four per cent to enable serving and ex-servicemen military personnel to get CSD items or goods at cheaper rates.
This is not all! The Cabinet also approved setting up of exclusive court along with the supporting staff at Jalandhar for delivering speedy justice to the ex-servicemen — on the lines of the special NRI courts to deal exclusively with the cases of Non-Resident Indians. The decisions came on the same day when the Congress organised an event to hail the Congress-led UPA Government’s decision to pass the Bill related to One Rank One Pension scheme where around 2,000 ex-servicemen, right from the rank of generals to hawaldars, from the States of Punjab, Haryana and the UT of Chandigarh participated.
During the event, Rahul Gandhi personally met each and every ex-serviceman present in the event, and later assured to help them “anywhere” and “anytime”. “Anywhere you need my help, whether the work is big or small, I would be there for you…I would help you as much as I can,” said Rahul Gandhi. If that is not enough, the slogans of aap kiske saath ho, Congress ke saath (you are with whom, with Congress), reverberating the pandal is enough to tell that event was indeed a political rally.
Taking full advantage of the One Rank One Pension decision, the Congress is beating the drum for fulfilling the fraternity’s long pending demand. The two neighbouring States of Punjab and Haryana have contributed maximum number of people to the country’s Armed Forces, and have highest number of ex-servicemen in the country. The Congress is leaving no stone unturned to woo the huge voting bank of the ex-servicemen, mainly concentrated in Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur districts of Punjab by taking all credit for fulfilling the 25-year-old demand of the ex-servicemen.
As the move is expected to benefit 25 lakh retired and 14 lakh serving army men, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has termed the move as “a political stunt”. “The recent announcement of UPA Government to accord One Rank One Pension to serving and veteran defence personnel is nothing more than a political gimmick,” said Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday.
He said that at the fag end of its current term, “the UPA Government was trying to mislead the people by alluring them with such announcements whereas it was a fact that the Congress would hardly take any decision in this regard, as it was not serious on this issue”. Cautioning the people, Badal said that the UPA Government would make more such announcements in the coming days to lure them in the wake of lok Sabha polls. “But, they should not get swayed away with the treacherous moves of the Union Government as these decisive polls would either make or mar their future,” he added.
Defence personnel being a huge votebank in a state like Punjab, Amarinder Singh-led Congress Government had also tried to woo the fraternity “in the same manner” by doling out sops before the State Assembly polls in 2007. At that time, the then Chief Minister Amarinder invited Sonia Gandhi who, just like his son Rahul Gandhi, had then assured the ex-servicemen that their problems would be taken up at the party level.
The Amarinder’s Government, at that point in time, had initiated various steps including hiking reward money for gallantry awardees, setting up a legal cell in the Chief Minister’s Office to expedite settlement of disputes — that apparently could not do enough to bring the Congress back in power. Even as both sides are making all out attempts to win the accolades of the defence personnel, it would be interesting to see which way the wind blows.