Suicide over OROP: Why ex-servicemen are still unhappy with Modi govt

Days before Ram Kishan Grewal's suicide, PM Modi had said that the 1st instalment under OROP of Rs 5,500 cr had been paid

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lied about implementing One rank, One pension (OROP) alleged Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday, after he was released from police detention after he tried to meet the family of ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal who committed suicide over delay in the implementation of OROP.

Kejriwal was not the only leader to be detained by the police, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi was also detained twice as Opposition leaders hit out against the Modi government over the issue. 

According to media reports, Grewal consumed poison on Tuesday afternoon in protest over the delay in implementation of the pension scheme. Police said that the 70-year old veteran, along with some other ex-servicemen, were in the process of submitting a memorandum to the Defence Ministry over the issue.

What is OROP?

OROP implies uniform pension for Armed Forces personnel retiring at the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement, with future enhancement in the rates of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners.

The 10-member parliamentary panel set to look into the issue in 2011, explained OROP as a scheme that seeks to bridge the gap between the rates of pension payable to current pensioners and past pensioners.

As explained by Business Standard earlier, this means is that Armed Forces personnel should get the benefit of changes in salary even after their retirement. Thus, if an officer retires as a Major, his salary level will be linked to that of a Major who retires 10 years after he does.

On September 5, 2015, the central government decided to implement the scheme, and media reports had indicated that more than two-thirds of ex-servicemen had been paid their OROP arrears by March this year. 

The total amount disbursed under OROP by March 17, 2016, was Rs 2,293 crore. 

On October 30, two days before Grewal's suicide, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the first instalment of nearly Rs 5,500 crore had been paid for implementing the OROP scheme and added that he had "fulfilled the promise" made to ex-servicemen.

Why are the veterans still unhappy?

Despite repeated assertions by the prime minister and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar that the government had fulfilled its promise regarding OROP, all does not seem to be well on that front. 

Ex-servicemen have still been protesting at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi over what they describe as "anomalies" in the scheme. 

Here is what the protesting veterans had to say about the issue:

• Time period for revision: The major issue of contention between the dissatisfied veterans and the government is the time period for revision of pensions. While the government's version of OROP provides for revision every five years, veterans have demanded annual rationalisation of pensions. If annual revisions do not happen, "it is one rank-five pension", brigadier JS Sandhu (rtd) told IANS after Grewal's suicide.

• Fixing pensions at top of the scale: The second major demand is fixing pensions at top of the scale against the current scheme of using the mean average. In its current form, OROP follows a mechanism in which the pensions are fixed by calculating the average of highest and lowest pensions for a rank, with protection to those with higher pension.

• Date of implementation: The third issue of contention between the veterans and the government is that the former want OROP to be implemented with effect from April 1, 2014, and not July 1, 2014, as provided for in the government version.

• Base year: The other issue of contention is that the veterans want the 2013-14 financial year to be fixed as the base year for implementation of the scheme and not on the basis of the calendar year, as suggested by the government.