While the entire retired defence fraternity are eagerly but patiently awaiting announcement of One Rank-One Pension (OROP) 3, which was due to be disbursed in 1st July 2024, after a waiting period of five years, there is no proper Government announcement on the date of release of the of OROP 3.
There is a lot of information and charts which are being published in various newspapers, these might not be taken as truly authentic. All the veterans are looking towards proper government announcements while the big festival of Diwali is round the corner.
Whatever has been published in various papers, there seem to be anomalies existing in the fixation of the OROP. For example, which seems to be glaring, is fixation of OROP in the rank of Lt Col. In the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col), while pay of a Lt Col of 30.5 years of service has been fixed at Rs 99, 350, the same of a Lt Col with 31 years, only six months more service, has been fixed at Rs 1,10,435, with a difference of approximately Rs 11,085. This cannot be factual as a difference, otherwise between the seniority is a few hundred of thousand only.
This is an example. More such cases may get unearthed with more scrutiny. Government tends to be giving One Rank Many Pay.
Ironically, in May 2014, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had included implementation of OROP in its election manifesto.
The BJP Prime Ministerial candidate and now PM, Narendra Modi at a large election rally, in Rewari, Haryana, in the presence of tens of thousands of ex-Servicemen, had declared that he will implement OROP, if elected.
After Modi became Prime Minister, there were more promises and public affirmations by him, and Manohar Parrikar, the then Defence Minister, on the merits of OROP, and their intent to implement OROP.
Most memorably on Diwali, at Siachen Glacier, in 2014, he told soldiers, “It was in my destiny that OROP has been fulfilled.” Ironically on May 30, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after more than a year of pledges and promises to implement OROP, controversially declared that the term OROP still needed to be defined.
Modi's musings on the need for a new more acceptable OROP definition prompted widespread dismay, disappointment, and outrage among Armed Forces pensioners. On May 31, 2015, Modi in Mann Ki Baat asked ex-Servicemen to remain patient, while he got rid of the bureaucratic hassles. Modi’s statement was widely perceived as a disingenuous attempt to delay, dilute, and deny OROP
The Modi government has faced criticism for its handling of the OROP scheme, which aims to provide equal pensions to armed forces personnel with the same rank and length of service, regardless of retirement date.
Ex-servicemen have protested the government’s handling of OROP, including staging a dharna in Bhubaneshwar and a protest rally on the Barnala-Bathinda Highway.
Four former chiefs of the Armed Forces of India, namely late General S F Rodrigues, former Chief of Army Staff, and Admirals L Ramdas, Arun Prakash and Sureesh Mehta, former Chiefs of Naval Staff, in an open letter to then President Pranab Mukherjee, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, on August 13, 2015 had warned that the denigration and humiliation of veterans, and the Government handling of veterans and armed Forces issues, pose “grave implication for national security”.
The concept of rank-pay introduced in 1986, affected tens of thousands of serving and retired officers of the three armed forces. It started the process of undermining military ranks and making them subordinate to the police. Its discriminatory provisions reinforced the growing sense of distrust between the MOD and the veterans. It debased the military ranks of captain, majors, Lt Col, Colonels, and Brigadiers, and their equivalent in the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy.
Years have passed, but till now no permanent scheme has been introduced by the government to resolve this OROP issue on a permanent basis. Not only that, the honour, dignity and economic status of defence forces is in the down trend ever since and no sign of bringing them at least at par with then other civil services is in view.
The politicians, including Prime Minister Modi, have never missed a chance to whip up public emotions during elections by seeking votes in the name of martyrs. But when it comes to giving the soldiers their due, the government always tends to look the other way. This is not only unacceptable, but also highly deplorable.