Unfazed over the controversy that his “mental state” remark about the ex-serviceman who committed suicide over OROP generated on Wednesday, Union Minister Gen VK Singh on Thursday said deceased Ram Kishan Grewal was a Congress worker and that he wasn’t a prominent face of the OROP agitation. For their part, Union Ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Kiren Rijiju accused Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi of enacting a “political drama” and “votebank politics” over the suicide.
Singh said Grewal’s issue was with the bank not with OROP and had he approached us and we didn’t help him then it would have been my fault. He, however, said Grewal was “our solider” and “we feel sad over his death”.
“He (Grewal) was a Congress worker. He became sarpanch on Congress’ ticket. However, he was our soldier. I feel sad over his death,” Singh said. Singh also rejected reports about Grewal being a prominent face of the ‘OROP’ agitation, saying ex-servicemen protesting at Jantar Mantar for its implementation had said they had seen the former Armyman at the protest venue for the first time before he committed suicide.
The former General also went on to state that the Centre had accepted the long-pending demands of the agitating veterans and there was no need to get into what one was saying for “4 paisa.”
Naqvi said the Congress is raising questions over OROP to avoid answering as to why it did not roll out the scheme under its 40-year rule. He accused Rahul Gandhi of enacting a “political drama” over the suicide by an ex-Armyman and said some leaders were misleading the country with their “negative” politics.
He also alleged that the Congress vice-president and his party had earlier raised questions on surgical strikes and the Bhopal encounter of SIMI activists and “are now conspiring to create confusion in the country over OROP only for their political gains”.
Naqvi said such type of “negative politics” will adversely affect the morale of the brave soldiers who are giving a befitting reply to the country’s enemy and people will reject them as in the past.
Rijiju accused Rahul and Delhi Chief Arvind Kejriwal of indulging in vote bank politics, saying people are tired of their “dramas”. In a series of tweets, Rijiju said the Narendra Modi Government was committed to the cause of soldiers and honour of martyrs. “People are intelligent and matured. Those terrorists’ sympathisers and vote bank political opportunists will be severely punished by the people,” he said.
Rijiju also uploaded pictures of former PM Indira Gandhi, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul saying the issue of ‘OROP’ was “created” during Indira’s rule and she had “removed” the OROP benefits but no one criticised her.
The Minister alleged Sonia did not take the initiative for resolving the OROP issue when the UPA was in power for 10 years while Rahul neither care about OROP nor did he speak about OROP when the Congress was in power.