Govt misleading ex-servicemen with 'diluted' OROP: Cong

Accusing the government of misleading ex-servicemen with its "diabolical dilution" of OROP, Congress today alleged that several crucial issues had been "deliberately left in dark" with Prime Minister Narendra Modi engaging in "accounting jugglery" on the issue.
Posing questions to Modi a day after his assurance that armed forces jawans who had to give up their jobs prematurely would be covered by OROP benefits, party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi asked whether the benefits will be extended to those who seek premature retirement without medical reasons or other incapacity to serve.
"Modi government continues to keep 30 lakh ex-servicemen in a state of flux, deep disappointment and doubts vis-a-vis its diabolical dilution of One Rank One Pension (OROP). Considerable confusion and doubts remain over the contours of OROP," he alleged.

Singhvi said while Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar ruled out benefit of the OROP to those seeking voluntary retirement, the Prime Minister said those getting injured, medically incapacitated to serve and consequently constrained to leave service will not be denied the advantages.
He rued that while the demand of the veterans was to calculate pension as per the highest salary drawn, the government has done it on average basis and not even conceded reviewing their pension every two years. He claimed that the UPA government had decided for continuous revision of pension.
Holding that the ex-servicemen's demand to have their representatives in the judicial commission to examine various aspects of OROP is a genuine one, Singhvi said," PM Modi should stop playing with the sentiments of our veterans, leave the policy of unilateral decision making and engage with the veterans to find a permanent solution."

Referring to other announcements made by Modi such as devolution of more funds to states from Finance Commission and the Rs 1.25 lakh crore package for poll-bound Bihar, the Congress spokesperson alleged that the Opposition has seen this "trait of clever accounting" more than once.