Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar has pooh-poohed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi calling on the relatives of veteran Subedar Ram Kishan Grewal, who recently committed suicide against the delay in implementing One Rank One Pension (OROP).
In an open letter to Rahul, Chandrasekhar said that visiting a hospital full of patients with an entourage shouting slogans is not the way to show concern for veterans.
He himself had been raising the demand for OROP since he stepped into Parliament in 2006, Chandrasekhar said. During the UPI I and II regimes, he had written several letters to — and had several meetings with — the then Prime Minister, Defence Minister and UPA chairperson on the matter, he recalled. All the attempts were met with either a “can’t do it” or a stony silence, he said in the letter.
Chandrasekhar further said he had written to Rahul on OROP and other armed forces related issues way back in 2011, but the latter neither replied nor took any action.
“It was then I wrote to you in February 2014, where I lauded your belated interest, reminding you of how belated it was...
“Even when the OROP was hurriedly announced by your government prior to elections, adding insult to injury was your Finance Minister allocating a mere ₹500 crore — a cruel joke which would not have been enough for enhanced pensions for even 10 per cent of the veterans,” his letter said.
It took the present government, despite serious objections from the Finance Ministry about the fiscal implications, to announce and implement OROP — costing almost ₹8,300 crore per annum and a one-time cost of more than ₹20,000 crore — correcting a four-decade old injustice perpetrated on our veterans, he added.
According to him, there are some pending complex issues in OROP, which were referred to a panel set up to look into the anomalies.