As veterans started surrendering their medals in various parts of the country on Tuesday to protest against “One-Rank, One-Pension” (OROP) scheme notified recently by the Government, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said such behaviour is “unlike that of a soldier.” He also said protesters were misguided adding he was “pained to see such tactics”. Protesters hit back saying Parrikar’s behaviour did not “behove a Defence Minister.”
Parrikar’s remarks came a day after he rejected a relook at OROP as insisted by protesting ex-servicemen and said the Government had fulfilled all major demands of veterans. This drew sharp reaction from former soldiers, who said the OROP notified on Saturday last had diluted the scheme’s definition.
Former Defence Minister AK Antony accused the Government of “betraying” war veterans and dubbing the notification as a “Diwali shock” for them. “It’s not a Diwali gift. It is a Diwali shock,” he said, adding “this order is a vast dilution of UPA’s order.”
Noting that the order says the soldiers who retire voluntarily after 15 years of service will not get OROP, Antony said this will affect the policy to maintain an ever youthful force.
He said the order issued by UPA Government on April 24, 2014 itself has clarified the definition of OROP. “OROP means those soldiers who retire of same rank, with same length of service will get same pension, irrespective of the date on which they retire,” he said.
“Besides, the UPA Government had also included that all future enhancement will be automatically passed on to ex-servicemen also. So it was clear, if one retires today or five years back will get the same pension. But the new order is against it,” he pointed out.
Expressing regret at continuing agitation by the veterans, Parrikar said in Goa on Tuesday their behaviour was “unlike that of a soldier” and they have been misguided. He also urged them not to link their decision to return medals to a financial demand.
“Medals are given by the country for the service and gallantry acts that the soldiers have rendered. A section insisting on returning the medals because one is not happy with certain clauses of OROP, for which the Government is paying over Rs8,000 crore, is demeaning the medal itself,” Parrikar said.
Terming OROP decision as his biggest achievement in the last one year as the Defence Minister, he said if some people still have any grievances, they can present their case to the judicial committee that will be set up.
Elaborating upon the decision to revise pension every five years as against the demand by veterans to review it every two years, Parrikar said the Government opted for five years because of administrative requirement.
“There is a huge process that is involved. The protesting veterans had offered revision every two years. So if they term our scheme as One-Rank, Five-Pension, their’s would be one-rank, two-pension,” he said.
Meanwhile, nearly 2,000 veterans returned their medals in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab and said they will observe a ‘Black Diwali’ to protest against the NDA Government going back on its assurances on the OROP.
At many places, including Panchkula, Ambala, Mohali and Patiala, ex-servicemen held protests, saying they were dissatisfied with Centre’s notification issued last week. Scores of former soldiers in Ambala, Chandigarh, Moga, Jalandhar and Gurdaspur returned their medals, while those from Mumbai, Pune, Vadodara and Bangalore will follow suit “next”, Colonel (retired) Anil Kaul, spokesman of the protesters, said in New Delhi.
In the national Capital, several ex-servicemen returned their medals before the District Collector’s office.
“The veterans had threatened to leave the medals on road if we didn’t accept it. Hence, we accepted those,” District Collector Sanjay Kumar told reporters.
However, Independent MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who had negotiated between the Government and ex-servicemen over OROP issue, urged the veterans not to return their medals and asked them to engage with the one-man commission set up for redressal of pending issues.