Against the backdrop of the controversy over the suicide of an ex-serviceman, the Government on Friday slammed the politicisation of the issue and maintained that it has allocated all the money for the One-Rank, One-Pension (OROP) scheme. It attributed the controversy to mistakes committed by the banks in disbursing it to the veterans.
“The Government has allocated all the money. There seems to be a problem at the bank level. When such huge amounts are disbursed, a few calculation mistakes happen on the bank side,” Jaitley told newspersons as the politics over the suicide snowballed.
Jaitley lashed out at the politicisation of the suicide by the Congress and the AAP. “It doesn’t behave senior national leaders to exploit a tragedy of this kind, particularly at the ICU of a hospital. More responsible behaviour is expected from them,” he said.
“No one should try to change a personal tragedy into political gain, especially a party whose fortune is already sinking,” Jaitley said targeting the Congress.
He accused the Opposition party of not implementing the OROP during the 10 years of its tenure before Narendra Modi took over in 2014.
Meanwhile, another Central Minister VK Singh continued to hit out at the Congress and AAP alleging that they were “doing politics over dead bodies”.
Singh alleged that the two parties were left with no issues and knew nothing about the ‘One Rank, One Pension’ matter.
“So many soldiers have been martyred, did Aam Aadmi Party leaders and Congress leaders go to pay homage to themIJ They are talking senseless,” the Minister of State for External Affairs told reporters on the sidelines of an energy efficiency conference.
Asked about criticism from other parties on his remarks, Singh said, “There is no point discussing with those who don’t know anything about it (one rank one pension).”
Earlier, on Wednesday, Singh had reportedly raised questions about the “mental state” of the ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal allegedly over OROP that sparked a political row.
He had also rejected reports about Grewal being a prominent face of the ‘OROP’ agitation. “He (Grewal) was a Congress worker. He became ‘sarpanch’ on Congress ticket. However, he was our soldier. I feel sad over his death,” Singh reportedly said.