OPINION in The Hindu on OROP dated 28 Aug 2015.
Unbiased and forceful.
V.
SUDARSHAN
If armed forces veterans feel let down, it is because the delivery on
the OROP promise has been in inverse proportion to the articulation of the
promise itself
Each day the government delays the implementation
of the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme, a demand that is 42 years old, it
risks playing with fire. It is safe to assume that the serving service Chiefs
have conveyed as much to the government. The public manifestation of the
rapidly spreading and quickly deepening levels of disenchantment came when the
daughter of Gen. V.K. Singh, former Army Chief of Staff and a serving Minister
of State, sat with the Jantar Mantar agitators in an open show of support.
Mrinalini Singh’s husband is a serving Army officer. This is a categorical
indication that both Gen. Singh and Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, another
Minister, would no doubt have pointed out to the government the consequences of
not being able to deliver on a promise already made several times over.
Uncertain
future
Roughly
60,000 people retire from the armed forces every year. Some retire before they
are 35, and as many as 87 per cent of servicemen retire between the ages of 34
and 48. Soldiers, sailors, airmen at the lowest level are the hardest hit
because after a near nomadic life in the armed forces, they most likely do not
own too many assets, a home nor have an alternative income stream. They have no
clear prospect of a second lease of working life either.
Soldiers
retire early because they need to be fighting fit to be in the forces and
hence, the armed forces need young blood. The retirement policy affects an
estimated 25 lakh ex-servicemen. Counted along with their dependents, the
number swells to roughly three times that or 70 lakh people.
Also, a large
section of the armed forces has family members who are either still serving or
have retired from the forces. In normal conversations, the situation is bound
to occupy their mindspace. Those in service know that sooner or later, they
will become veterans and inherit the same situation their fathers did before
them, an inheritance of loss.
The problem
has been exacerbated because of the way in which the then BJP prime ministerial
candidate, Narendra Modi, appropriated and espoused the cause at the 2014
hustings and his subsequent repeated assurance, both on the floor of Parliament
and elsewhere, that OROP was a settled matter and the solution had his
imprimatur. Consider also Mr. Modi’s unparalleled political heft in the Lok
Sabha and the fact that the Supreme Court has, as long ago as December 1982,
underlined the need for OROP. If the agitators feel let down, it is because the
delivery of the promise has so far been in inverse proportion to the
articulation of the promise itself.
Deliberately
tangled
As many as
ten retired service Chiefs have deliberately used the word ‘imbroglio’, a word
of Italian origin that has elements of confusion, entanglement, bitterness, and
complication all rolled into one. It accounts for the growing feeling that in
the real OROP narrative, Narendra Modi, whom none other than the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad’s Ashok Singhal acknowledged as BJP’s Iron Man, is helpless. His
inability to deliver stems from his being a victim of either intra-party
politics or from him having been ensnared in a web made by intransigent
bureaucrats.
The discourse
in New Delhi circles suggests that a section of the bureaucracy wants to dovetail
the OROP with the Seventh Pay Commission. This would effectively scupper the
plan because it would postpone the resolution and rework the rationale and
framework of the OROP as well. Lt. Gen. Syed Ata Hasnain, who retired as
Military Secretary of the Army, writes in the July issue of Fauji India that
the “bureaucracy is living up to its promise to complicate the issue to such an
extent that it [OROP] is once again shelved without decision.”
The
procrastination has escalated the situation to a standoff between the veterans
and the government. Mr. Modi’s inability to act quickly and effectively has
allowed other political parties space where none need have been conceded. The
issue is now open to political hijack. There has been a steady stream of contradictory
noises emanating from the government, most notably from the Finance Ministry,
asking ex-servicemen to “lower expectations”.
The
implication is that the government is having trouble coming up with the money.
It has not gone unnoticed among the veterans that Mr. Modi, the politician, had
no difficultly promising Rs. 1.25 lakh crore for Bihar in what amounts,
scandalously, to pre-election sops. For OROP, the figure being talked about is
roughly Rs. 8,300 crore, a fraction of the Bihar pledge.
Soldiers
cannot go on strike like bank employees do, but patience now seems in short
supply. Since June, the veterans have resorted to black armband protests, bike
rallies, candle-light vigils, petitions, the return of service medals, and
hunger strikes in an attempt to force the government to focus on the
implications. They know more than others that all it requires is a small spark
to set off a blaze. If something has been building up for a long time and is
looking for release, even something as inconsequential as a slap can have an
enormous ripple effect.
We need to
remember the mutiny witnessed after Operation Blue Star. Given that the
veterans are already on hunger-strike and writing petitions in blood, all it
needs is a momentary provocation to set off that dreaded spark.
Soldiers cannot go on strike like bank employees
do,
but patience now seems in short supply
this pogram is based on OROP issue ,follow this link and watch : http://www.newsnation.in/special-programme/question-hour-show-25/14621
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