Taking the fight to a new level, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Friday, accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of lying about the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme.
The Congress leader said, “What Prime Minister is calling OROP, it is actually only pension enhancement and not OROP, so Modi ji please stop lying and implement OROP.”
The Congress vice president asserted that OROP was the right of military personnel and the government “will have to give it”. He said the soldiers told him that it’s not an issue of money but honour and justice. They said that if the government announces it has no money, they would stop demanding OROP, Rahul said
The One Rank One Pension scheme or OROP returned as a national debate this week after a former soldier from Haryana killed himself after not being paid the money he was due. Subedar Ram Kishen Grewal’s death on Tuesday was seized by the opposition to lay into the government for inadequate execution of the scheme that equalizes pensions between former soldiers who served at the same rank for the same amount of time.
Accusing the government of waiving loans of a staggering Rs. 1.10 lakh crore of 15 big industrialists, Gandhi said it has nothing to give to soldiers and farmers.
“The government has not given respect and the right which is due to soldiers. If it had, why these ex-servicemen been protesting for the last 509 days at Jantar-Mantar,” he said after meeting around 60-70 military veterans at the AICC headquarters.
The dead soldier’s son, Jaswant Grewal, has on camera accused the police of assaulting him. “The way a soldier’s family was dragged out, abused, beaten – I saw this,” Mr. Gandhi said.
