OROP: Ex-servicemen threaten to intensify stir

Ex-servicemen agitating over the ‘One Rank, One Pension’ (OROP) issue on Sunday threatened to intensify the protest if their demands were not met by the Centre within three weeks even as they decided to not vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Assembly elections.

The United Front of Ex-servicemen (UFES), an umbrella body of associations of ex-servicemen, which is leading the protest, demanded that the Centre appoints “formally” former Army Chief and Union Minister VK Singh as the mediator between them and the government to resolve the issue “immediately”.  The veterans “gave” 15 days’ time to the government to “correct” its OROP scheme in line with the protesters’ expectations – failing which a seven-day notice period will be given to the government before the protest is intensified.

“We are giving the government 15 days’ time, requesting it for mediation and after that we will give them seven days’ notice. Issue an order today itself empowering VK Singh to mediate with us and discuss the issue with us and resolve it within three-four days by removing seven discrepancies in the government OROP,” major general (retd) Satbir Singh, who is leading the protest, said.

Singh made the demand during ‘Sainik Aakrosh’ rally organised by UFES at Jantar Mantar in the national Capital.

Aiming to mount pressure on the NDA government, the UFES urged its members to not vote for the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections in several states, including Assam.

The veterans claimed it were the votes of ex-servicemen which helped the BJP improve its tally in the 2014 Lok Sabha – more than what the NDA major itself had expected, they claimed. But the government has “cheated” veterans by not giving the OROP they wanted and BJP had promised to give, Singh said.

“You saw what happened to the party in Delhi and recently Bihar. We urge the members to not vote for it in upcoming polls now if our demands are ignored,” he added.

The UFES also called upon ex-servicemen present at the rally to boycott the Republic Day celebrations this year. Singh also hit out at Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for stating that the government’s OROP formula was accepted by most ex-servicemen’s organisations and that only a small section had some issues with it.