Jay Bhattacharjee is a policy and corporate affairs analyst based in
Delhi.
Why One Rank-One Pension is a non-negotiable right of our soldiers, and
why any delay in its implementation is unacceptable.
When the Narendra Modi government assumed office just a year ago, it
generated hopes and aspirations among hundreds of millions of the country’s
citizens. This was notwithstanding a few semi-academic exercises by some
self-professed psephologists that labelled the electoral verdict as a minority
vote. However, even among voters who were not supporters of the BJP-NDA
combine, there was genuine goodwill for the new regime and expectations that it
would deliver results, after ten years of appalling misgovernment and graft.
Among the groups that pinned their hopes most enthusiastically on the
current occupants of Raisina Hill were the nation’s soldiers and defenders,
retired and serving. This group of brave warriors, although not more than 7 to
8 million citizens in numbers, had been among the primary victims of seven
decades of Nehruvian / Congress neglect and discrimination, and even outright
perfidy, as many would say. The Prime Minister, in his earlier avatar as a
candidate for the PM’s post, had made the most welcome gesture of addressing a
large number of rallies of ex-servicemen, where he had categorically assured
the brave warriors who had given their best years to defend their country, that
their legitimate demands would be met by him and his party if they were voted
to power. The oldest and most justifiable demand of the retired faujis was the
One Rank One Pension (OROP) policy. This had been hanging fire in the fiendish
corridors of power in Delhi’s North Block and South Block and other assorted
offices in the capitol’s Lutyens zone for decades. I will shortly come to the
basic definition of OROP and its legitimacy.
When Modi first announced his public support for OROP in a rally in
Haryana in September 2013, preponderantly attended by ex-servicemen, I
enthusiastically applauded him. Thereafter, OROP was featured in the BJP’s
election manifesto. After taking over as Prime Minister, Modi reiterated his
and his government’s commitment to OROP a number of times.
However, the scenario at the operational level was quite different. The
two nodal offices that are key to the implementation of OROP are the Ministry
of Defence (MOD) and the Finance Ministry (MOF), not necessarily ranked in any
order of priority. The three Services chiefs (Army, Navy and Air Force) are
quite peripheral in the entire exercise. That is another story altogether.
For the benefit of the general reader, it would now be appropriate to
define OROP, explain its history and analyse the reasons why it is such a
genuine and legitimate demand of our soldiers and warriors. Shorn of all complexities
and verbiage, OROP means that the same pension would be paid to armed forces
personnel in the same rank who have retired at different times, after having
put in the same years of service. In other words, a Naik or Subedar Major who
has hung up his boots in 1998 (and is drawing a pittance of a pension) will be
paid the same pension as their counterpart retiring today. Also, future
increases in pensions will also be extended automatically to past pensioners.
Naturally, this policy would also be equally applicable to officers of all
ranks in the three services.
To explain this a bit further, so that the enormity of the crime being
committed by the babus and the netas in Delhi becomes more apparent, it should
be emphasized that an Indian soldier, airman or navy person retires at around
the age of 37 approximately, while a civilian factotum (irrespective of his /
her position in the pecking order) retires at 60. Officers, too, below the rank
of Lt. General (and equivalent) retire much earlier than their babu peers.
Therefore, the jawan and the middle-aged officer who left the forces 15 years
ago, had to contend with enormous pressures to sustain their families and rear
their children. And they still continue with the pittance of the pension they
received. OROP merely makes up for the deficit of all these years, a deficit
that was not merely financial but was equally a moral failure.
OROP has been exhaustively studied and researched for more than a
decade. Around 12 years ago, in 2003, a Parliamentary Standing Committee on
Defence recommended it, and said most categorically that it was “a debt” the
Indian Republic had to discharge, a debt that the Union Government must honour
and pay. Eight years later, the Koshyari Committee was set up in March 2011 to study
OROP in depth and make its recommendations. This Committee submitted its
detailed report to Parliament in Dec 2011, unequivocally and robustly
supporting the grant of OROP. It was hardly surprising that the UPA bunch of
Manmohan Singh, Anthony, Chidambaran and the rest of the cabal sat on the
matter and basically told the armed forces to take a running jump.
Therefore, Modi’s promises and assurances came as a breath of fresh air, even
to cynical analysts like me and others in my group. However, the huge hopes
built up during the election campaign and the change of guard in Raisina Hill a
year ago, started withering and evaporating pretty quickly. Paraphrasing the
4th Earl of Chesterfield, we started wondering whether “there is always a
degree of ridicule that attends a disappointment, though often very unjustly,
if the expectation was reasonably grounded.” Even worse was the nagging doubt
whether the new government was following Francis Bacon’s dictum that a
government can “hold men’s hearts by hopes when it cannot by satisfaction”.
The first blow was struck by the new regime’s part-time Defence Minister
Arun Jaitley a few months after the change of guard. A delegation of senior
retired warriors who met the Raksha Mantri (RM), as the position is referred to
in the terminology of Delhi’s babus, was stunned by the encounter. From all
available accounts, Jaitley breezed into the scheduled meeting more than an
hour late, made no effort to have eye contact with the visiting group and then
moralised and hectored to them that they should reduce their expectations of
what OROP entails, or words to that effect. The man’s stint as RM lasted a few
months more and there is almost unanimous consent not just in the armed forces
but in the country as a whole that the five odd months that Jaitley spent as RM
were completely wasted.
Manohar Parrikar’s appointment as a full-time RM on the 9th November
2014 was widely welcomed. He came to the capital after building up an
impeccable reputation as Goa’s Chief Minister. He had other things going for
him as well – his simple, non-VIP style of functioning and his credentials as
an IIT-trained engineer. The country’s fauji’s were cautiously optimistic, but
after Jaitley, anybody else was an improvement. Even I was rooting for him, until
Parrikar was struck by the deadly Delhi virus, a.k.a. the Raisina Hill
syndrome. At a media interaction, Parrikar made a bizarre statement that only
“80 per cent of OROP will be paid… because there is never 100 per cent in
everything”.
Since then, the Modi government has been behaving as if it is
participating in one of the tamasha performances in the Maharashtra of yore or
the Bengali jatra shows that were once so popular in rural Bengal. Everything
is a caricature, including the periodic homilies by the sutradhar, the
off-stage commentator who explains the nuances of the play’s plot to the
less-than clued-up audience. Periodic deadlines are announced or subtly hinted
to the waiting media. The poor soldiers and warriors are treated like the
proverbial serfs waiting to be fed crumbs from the tables of the masters. The
piece-de resistance, sadly, has been two recent pronouncements by the PM and
the RM after the 26th May (the first anniversary of the change of guard in the
country) came and went.
Basically, the two worthies have now stated that the entire issue has still not
been settled and there is no clear time-table for the implementation of OROP.
The PM’s homily was the more disturbing of the two – he said that the
definition of OROP was not clear. No, Mr. PM, this just won’t pass, simply
because your stand is completely incorrect and factually wrong. OROP has been
defined so clearly and categorically that any ordinary mortal, let alone
someone of your abilities and stature, will never take this stand. I am afraid
you are being disingenuous or the babus have taken you for a gigantic ride. I
will be the happiest person on earth if my assessments spelt out here are
proved wrong.
The Indian veteran is not somebody you treat as a doorman, Mr. Prime
Minister. To say (quite correctly, I may add) that the Congress cabal did
nothing for our veterans for many decades does not absolve you and your
cabinet. Your babus are trying their best to sell you the lemon that OROP is
vague, unworkable etc. but do please rise above their level and call their
bluff. Remember the words of Harry Truman, who after being one of the world’s
most powerful figures, left for home in his own car when he retired as
America’s President, refused all benefits from his country’s exchequer and used
his own funds to post his letters : “A president either is constantly on top of
events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him.”
The Indian jawan, who has done his best for our country, expects, nay
demands, that you do your best for him now. You and your government should stop
treating the veterans as if they are asking for hand-outs, when all they are
doing is demanding their dues that they were promised. Indeed, you and your
administration should realise that there would be nothing for you to hand out
if these intrepid warriors had not sacrificed their lives and limbs. Let me end
by reminding you, Prime Minister, of Chanakya’s adage on the Emperor’s duties
towards his soldiers. For a man of your erudition and knowledge of Indian history,
I surely do not have to provide you the exact words.
But
for your babus educated in various institutions that set great store by Western
thought, let me remind them of the English saying about adoring God and the
soldier in times of war and danger. The good poet goes on to add that “when the
danger is passed and all things righted, God is forgotten and the soldier
slighted”.
Surely, the BJP-NDA government would not like to be remembered in the
annals of history for having committed this cardinal sin.
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