Brig Anil Gupta
A lot has been written and spoken lately about One Rank One Pension (OROP) in the media. Yet there is a need to write more so that each and every citizen of the country understands its nuances and the reason why the veterans, proud soldiers of yesteryears have been forced to agitate and sit on hunger strike. As the name suggests the issue relates to pension, an obligation the nation owes to them for their past service. So, what they are agitating for is their legitimate due and not a gratis. Chanayka gave the following advice to King Chandragupta Maurya “If ever things come to a sordid pass when, on a given day, the Mauryan soldier has to look backover his shoulder prompted by even a single worry about his and his family’s material, physical and social wellbeing, it should cause you and your Council the greatest concern and distress. I beseech you to take instant note and act with uncommon dispatch to address the soldier’s anxiety. It is my bounden duty to assure you, My Lord, that day when the Mauryan soldier has to demand his dues or worse, plead for them, will neither have arrived overnight nor in vain. It will also bode ill for Magadha. For then on that day, you, My Lord, will have lost all moral sanction to be King! It shall also be the beginning of the end of the Mauryan Empire.”Chanayka’s advice has been accepted universally. A soldier enrolls into the nation’s army with a pledge to make supreme sacrifice for the motherland and the nation promises to look after him and his family’s material, physical and social wellbeing. A solemn promise that motivates him to attain martyrdom without even blinking an eyelid. Is the Indian nation somewhere going wrong in honouring this promise?
Facts speak for themselves. To keep the army young and fit, the soldiers of Indian Army start retiring between 34-37 years of age. In the civil street it is termed as prime of their youth. On the other hand his compatriots in the police and other government jobs retire at the ripe age of sixty years. The remainder of the armed forces personnel (less officers) retire before 50 years of age. The bulk of officers retire between 54-58 years and only 0ne percent retire at 60 years. The disadvantage that accrues from retiring at younger age is that you draw less number of annual increments resulting into less salary at the time of retirement. It has a twin financial effect on the after retirement life of the soldier; lesser pension (which is a derivative of the last salary drawn) and fewer savings- a derivative of the total earnings during service. Within the armed forces itself those who retired in the early years get lesser pension than those who retired in the later years as each pay commission enhances salaries considerably. Thus a Havildar or equivalent in Navy and the Air Force who retired in 90s or early 2000 gets much lesser pension than a Sepoy who retires today. Likewise, among officers similar anomaly exists.
One Rank One Pension simply means that the pension will be based on the total length of service and the rank held at the time of retirement rather than the date of retirement. In other words a Sepoy with 15 years of service who retired say ten years back should get same pension as that of a Sepoy with the same length of service who retires today. It is very simple but a few vested interests in the bureaucracy have always convinced the political leadership to the contrary. It involves bringing the pension at par with present retirees as on a cutoff date say 01 Apr 2014 (the date agreed by the government for its implementation) and an annual increment thereafter.
Indian Armed Forces have been the most disciplined and responsive organ of the government ever since independence. Immediately after independence, when the forces were busy fighting the Pak invaders who had entered Jammu & Kashmir for its forced annexation, the salary of the armed forces was reduced by five percent (a princely sum in those days). It was happily accepted in the national interest. Then immediately after the 1971 war, a war that raised the nation’s sagging morale after the debacle of 1962, the third pay commission reduced the pension of the JCOs/OR from 70% to 50% and enhanced the pension of civilian employees from 30% to 50%. What a gift for the victorious armed forces? To justify this, the mandarins of Ministry of Defence (MOD) for the first time came out with the concept of One Rank Pension. It was stated that the government would soon start One Rank One Pension for the Armed Forces to compensate for the loss that would accrue from this reduction.
Here again the forces were cheated by the bureaucrats who always loved to play with the sentiments of the soldiers to ensure the civilian supremacy over the armed forces. The ostrich like approach of the political leadership who had no or minimal concern for the armed forces encouraged the bureaucrats. Soon the political control was overtaken by bureaucratic control and hell let loose on the armed forces. The 3rd Pay Commission while reducing the pension of armed forces personnel to 50% and enhancing the same of civilian employees to 50% added a clause that to earn a full pension of 50% of last emoluments drawn a minimum service of 33 years was mandatory and for lesser service pro-rata reduction will be effected. To cater for truncated service span of the armed forces personnel rank weightage was introduced. For Sepoys it was fixed at 10 years knowing fully well that a sepoy retires after putting in 15 years of colour service. Thus his notional length of service was increased to only 15+10=25 years,ie, 8 years short of the mandatory 33 years to get full 50% pension. What a Sepoy actually got was full pensionx25/33= 37.88 or approximately 38% of last pay drawn, a loss of 32% of the pension he would have earned prior to 3rd CPC and that is 70% of last salary drawn and 12% less of his civilian counterpart, whose pension was enhanced from 30 to 50%. A gross injustice wasdone to the armed forces by the third Pay commission, a legacy that has been carried on by the subsequent pay commissions.
The armed forces veterans have been demanding implementation of OROP since then. Except for false promises from subsequent governments the veterans have received nothing. The demand and fight for OROP gained momentum after the Supreme Court ruling six years back when the government was directed to implement OROP. The movement was provided the much needed oxygen just prior to the last general elections when the UPA’s prime ministerial candidate Rahul Gandhi announced acceptance of OROP and its immediate implementation. BJP’s prime ministerial candidate lost no time in seizing the opportunity to garner the vast veteran vote bank and announced that his party would immediately implement OROP if voted to power. Rest is too recent to be narrated here. The veterans once again feel cheated and used. Despite repeated assurances of the PM and RM the veterans are at loss to understand as to why the government is reluctant to announce its implementation. They were hoping that a strong PM would overrule the bureaucrats and grant justice to the veterans. But nothing of this sort has happened. They apprehend it to be another failed promise. If the government is true to its promise than the delay in announcing its implementation is inexplicable. Will the saga of failed promises go on? I have a negative gut feeling and hope that this government will put an end to the saga of failed promises. I appeal to my fellow countrymen to understand the plight of the veterans and empathize with them and come in open support of their just demand.
(The author is a Jammu based veteran. He can be contacted at anil5457@gmail.com)
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