Lt Col Krishan Chand
The case originated from the third Pay Commission recommending doing away with higher percentage of pension to service personnel and bringing them at par with civilian pensioners at 50 per cent of the last pay drawn with 33 year qualifying service with slightly varying weightages. Feeling aggrieved and adversely discriminated, services veterans voiced their demand for equal pension for equal rank and length of service in the rank, regardless of date of retirement. The ground situation only aggravated since then, as, earlier retirees drew far lesser pension than the later retirees with gap ever increasing and, as a result, the demand grew shriller with passage of time and the effect of fourth, fifth and sixth Pay Commissions. The service personnel face harsher service conditions of living, separation from families, climate, harsher and restrictive Act and Rules governing their service and discipline, and, of course far higher levels of readiness and response to call of duty and risks to life and limb in war like conditions, unimaginably harsh and brutal. Their training, operational readiness and discipline for such duties has to match the best in the world in warlike conditions. It is therefore, in principal wrong to bracket and compare them with civilian employees both for pay and pension. The services also need younger and fitter lot at junior ranks to fight and survive the tough demanding physical and mental conditions of battle fields. The chronic inability and unwillingness of successive Govts to utilise the services of early retirees from armed forces in civil services, police and PSUs lent both weight and urgency to the demand. Further, it has to be understood that the service personnel remain somewhat isolated and sheltered from the networking and favour exchange that has come to characterise our political, social, business, bureaucratic and civil society, and, hence find it extremely difficult to get proper employment after retirement. Considering these conditions, the successive Govts appointed number of committees, apparently to just cool tempers and pass time, except for the last parliamentary committee headed by Rajya Sabha MP, Koshiary, which impressed upon the Govt the genuineness and urgency of OROP demand of the services and recommended equal pension for equal rank and service in the rank at retirement. It also recommended that any future improvements in pension to be also automatically passed on to past pensioners. It can’t get any clearer than that. Some have tried to interpret the report to mean qualifying service instead of length of service in the rank, which counts for % per cent age of pension, if it happens to not equal 33 yrs with weightage or lesser after the Sixth Pay Commission and future increments to mean the increments in pay and the resulting pension thereof. Such interpretations are wrong, don’t derive from ‘Koshiary Committee Report’ and are inconsistent with its definition.
The veterans and service personnel felt betrayed at the PM’s statements about ‘ no one is clear about the definition of OROP, what it means and it being a complex issue’ in his tweet and assertion that ‘his Govt was elected for 5 years’. In his ‘ Mann ki Baat’ broadcast later, he was more reassuring, but, the veterans and service personnel have begun to feel cynical, as, the PM himself had on three occasions publically declared that he had already given OROP and this U turn came as rude shock and betrayal. One is also, both puzzled and peeved with the media reports about the calculations being heavy and cumbersome and the amount required skyrocketing to Rs 22,000 crores instead of 8,298 crore calculated and committed in the budget as per Defence Minister’s own statement. In the IT age, the excuse of calculations taking time and not squaring up, is just pure hogwash and doesn’t hold water. For close approximation the Govt has to just pick up a 100/ 1,000 size sample of assorted cases of service pensioners of various ranks and length of service (including widows} and then multiply to total with the sum arrived divided by sample size. This approximation is likely to be within 1-2 per cent, if the sample selected is representative of the veteran rank, length of service in the rank and group etc. Therefore such outrageous figures and the statement that ‘ no one knows what OROP means at this stage’ can only be inferred to derive from lack of will to deliver on commitments. The OROP incidentally has both Supreme Court’s and Parliament’s approval where in the definition is very clearly stated leaving no room for ambiguity, and hence the mistrust.
Govt doesn’t also have to carry its OROP for long [ only 21 months from 01 Apr 14 to 31 Dec 15], as, it has already declared its validity to lapse on 31 Dec 15 beyond which the issue will be dealt with as per Seventh Pay Commission recommendations. Services have nursed the grievance since independence that they’ve been discriminated adversely in matters of pay, status, infrastructure, equipment etc and that their voice is not heard first hand by the political executive. They resent having to speak to the bureaucracy and not directly to the political executive. The arrangement in their opinion adversely affects their preparedness, morale and prospects with delays, corruption, costs with endless deliberations. With NDA’s return to power with thumping majority, the services and veterans naturally hoped for both speed and understanding of their long pending unaddressed grievances. Indecision on OROP in first year, it being stuck at the start, as per lay understanding of PM’s statements, have understandably angered the veterans.
To me and many other veterans, both the PM and DM appear sincere and committed to grant of OROP. The service personnel also are not used to agitate their demands. They should therefore not ever be required to do so. The veterans too are not agitating in the usual noisy and violent way. Their peaceful and disciplined voicing of their grievance has been forced on them by their interest being ignored for long. It is neither in the interest of the Govt nor country’s image, to have veterans agitate for their dues. It is only proper therefore, for the Govt to speak sincerely with them and resolve the issue before 15th June, when they plan to sit to protest at ‘Jantar Mantar’. OROP is fairly simple both in calculations and implementation. When mixed with jealousies and greed of those who seem to have privileged and priority access to govt’s attention and resources, it does get complex. Hope the Govt will not get intimidated/ adversely influenced to deny the service veterans their just dues!
