One Rank One Pension: Here’s A Timeline Why Their Demand For The Scheme Is Justified

“The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country.”

The Indian Army sacrifices their today for our tomorrow. They bear so much trouble and pain, only to ensure our safety. Our army veterans looked after us and gave all their life for us. But sadly, the elected government brought them to the streets just because they are claiming a minor portion of our GDP.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi first made the announcement of One Rank One Pension (OROP) in 2013 during a rally in Rewari, Haryana. 16 months later, the veterans are still waiting. The protest for an early implementation of the OROP is on for the past 73 days. The OROP protest is intensifying and the hunger strike is now in its 10th day.

So before the government comes to a conclusion over the issue, here is a detailed insight as to why the armed forces demand the implementation of the ‘One Rank, One Pension’ scheme and why it is their legitimate right.

What is OROP Scheme?

One-Rank-One-Pension is a concept in which two people retiring with the same length of service at the same rank will earn the same pension, even if they retired years apart. So basically it is like payment of uniform pension to military personnel retiring in the same rank, irrespective of the date of retirement.

To simplify, it means, a sepoy who retired in the 1990s should get the pension amount as someone who retired yesterday. At present, army personnel who retired before 2006 draw a lower pension than their counterparts and juniors who retired afterwards.

Why are they demanding OROP?

Military personnel retire much earlier unlike the government employees who retire at 60 or even more. Since they retire early, there is an added pressure of family liability and also it becomes more difficult for them to make a second career after that. The major reason most of them are in support of this scheme is because they undergo extreme hardship with risk to life and restriction of fundamental rights. Moreover, the terms and conditions of military services are much tougher than civilian employees. Around 22 lakh ex-servicemen and over six lakh war widows stand to be the immediate beneficiaries of the scheme.

Status of OROP Before 2014 Elections:

The One Rank One Pension scheme has been a long-standing demand of the over two million ex-servicemen of India. UPA Government had accepted the scheme a number of times, but eventually they did not implement it, after announcing the scheme in the interim budget in February 2014. Even they had allotted 500 crores to the Defence Pension Account for the implementation of this scheme.

Taking full ‘advantage’ of this situation, Narendra Modi who was then rallying for the Lok Sabha polls, openly slammed Congress for the delaying in implementing the scheme. Here is an excerpt from what he said, back then:

Not only that, our PM whole-heartedly claimed that “only our government will be able to implement it.”

Status of OROP After NDA came into power:

July 2014: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced an allocation of Rs 1000 crores in their budget. 🙂

December 2014: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said, the OROP will be implemented in the next budget. 🙂

February 2015: Arun Jaitley apparently ‘forgets’ to announce its implementation. 🙂

May 2015: Modi was expected to make some declaration in Mathura after completion of 1 year of the NDA in power.

But…nothing was mentioned in the rally. 🙂

June 15, 2015 – Start of the indefinite ‘Hunger Strike’

So, after the failure of talks between the government and retired Army personnel, a group of 55 ex-servicemen from Jalandhar district sat on a relay hunger strike at Jantar Mantar on June 15, 2015.

With the agitation going on for more than two months, currently, 3 Army veterans are on an indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar. Retired Havildar Ashok Kumar Chouhan of the Signal Regiment, Col Pushpendra Singh (retired) of the 3 Grenadiers and Havaldar Major Singh of the 3rd Sikh Regiment are on a “fast unto death” at the same venue, with Colonel Pushpendra Singh taken to a hospital due to deteriorating conditions.

Indian Army always served us more dearly than anyone else and protected us every time. So, instead of rallying in Bihar or spending money elsewhere, why is PM Saab not taking care of this issue and our armed forces?

OROP is related to those people who protect us. Please help them as they are our most valuable asset. The delay in implementing this scheme is just hurting their sentiments.

The demand of OROB is justifiable. What do you think?

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