Orop is not an issue about money, it is about honour, says a retd Major General
New Delhi: Orop was first recommended in 1983, then why have successive governments shied from implementing it?
A frail senior citizen with a torn kurta after a scuffle with Delhi Police; it was the last image the NDA government wanted to go viral a day before India’s 69th Independence Day especially given that the man in question, Bishambhar Singh, was a retired army-man agitating for the government to implement One rank One Pension (OROP). The term was coined by a Parliamentary Committee headed by minister of state for defense, K.P. Singh Deo in 1984 and means equal pension for the same rank regardless of the year in which the serviceman has retired. It was a recommendation that garnered little support from succesive government. However, pay commissions, especially the sixth one have exaggerated the difference in salaries drawn by officers of the same rank depending on the year of service and this has led to the current impasse. Currently the pension drawn by an officer who retires in 2005 is around 25-30% less than that received by an officer of the same rank who retired post 2006. “But this is not an issue about money, it is about honour,” says Maj Gen (retd.) Dhruv Katoch. He terms the repeated delay in the implementation of Orop a “deliberate slur” and “an act of betrayal against the Indian Army.” If implemented over 22 lakh retired soldiers and 6 lakh war widows will benefit from it.
Both the Congress and the BJP have tried to exploit this issue for political gains even though the issue is now more than three decades old. The UPA by clearing Orop in their last few months in office in 2013 and BJP by making it one of its poll promises for 2013. Both parties have failed to live up to their promises leading to the current agitation. Retired servicemen who were expecting Orop to be announced in the budget were disappointed and the fracas at Jantar Mantar when Delhi Police forcibly tried to remove them on 14 August has further added to their disillusionment. “For the defense personnel today it is a three pronged attack. He retires early, his pension benefits are less than that of his paramilitary counterparts who even serve till 60. From Indira Gandhi’s time to now this problem has been allowed to fester due to political ineptitude compounded by bureaucratic turpitude,” says Commodore Uday Bhaskar (retd), a leading security expert.
Different reasons are cited for the government’s reluctance to implement Orop ranging from the financial burden to the exchequer to fear of similar demands from other paramilitary forces. The government has mentioned a ball park figure of Rs8000+ crores for Orop. It is also speculated that the long years of pension payment for defence personnel as they start retiring from the age of 35 will add to the costs apart from revisions. But army sources say that the fears are unfounded. The figure is only about 3% of the defense budget which in turn is only about 2.4% of the GDP. “One has to see this figure in light of the financials of the 21st century. We have to move beyond the mindset that balks at a figure like this and considers it huge,” says military historian Mandeep Bajwa.
The services lay the blame for their plight firmly at the doorstep of the bureaucrats. Katoch quotes a former defence secretary who he refuses to name as having said, ‘Orop will happen over my dead body.’ With every pay commission we (the services) are humiliated in comparision with the civil services.” Officers complain how over the years bureaucrats with lesser years of service have been brought to par with Major Generals, a selection based rank attained after three odd decades of service. “The UPA approved Non Functional Upgrade (NFU) for the bureaucracy which essentially allows even non performing officers to the pay scale of the highest promoted officer of their batch. The army was excluded from this and this smarts,” says Bhaskar who feels that the services had no idea how the situation could get exacerbated when they accepted the recommendations of the third pay commission. When contacted defence ministry officials, both serving and retired, declined to participate in this story.
Pay commissions don’t include any representation from the services and the services fear that it is this lack of inclusion which leads to this step-sisterly treatment towards it. Bhaskar recommends a blue ribbon commission along the lines of the US where a group of exceptional people study a subject. “The services just want an equitable settlement.” However for this moment the servicemen are concentrating on the Orop protests and are determined to see it. “Politicians thought that the service men like always will beat a quiet retreat so the current situation has come as a surprise to them,” chuckles Bajwa. Prime Minister Modi might have reassured the servicemen about his government’s commitment to Orop “standing under the tri-colour” in his Independence Day speech but as Maj Gen Dhruv pointed out, politicians and bureaucrats need to remember this is not about money but honor. A solider’s honor.
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