Seeking the Prime Minister's intervention into the ill treatment meted out to ex-servicemen on August 14 at Jantar Mantar, at least ten former defence chiefs have written to Narendra Modi demanding an urgent probe into the incident.
To clear Jantar Mantar for security reasons ahead of Independence Day, the Delhi Police had used force against ex-servicemen agitating for the implementation of One Rank One Pension scheme asking them to leave the protest site. However, the former defence personnel had refused to budge and continued to hold fort at Jantar Mantar.
In their letter to the PM, the former defence chiefs have also urged the government to resolve the OROP issue as soon as possible.
This letter comes even as two veterans Colonel Pushpendra Singh and Hawaldar Major Singh have begun a fast unto death at Jantar Mantar. Ex-servicemen have said that they will boycott all government functions henceforth till their demands are met.
"The government has meted out very bad treatment to the defence force personnel. The government has been extremely arrogant. It has not fulfilled the promise that it made during elections," former Navy chief Admiral L Ram Das said.
The ex-servicemen have been up in arms against the central government after Prime Minister Narendra Modi refrained from making any commitment on the much-awaited OROP scheme for the former defence personnel and war widows during his speech at the Independence Day.
While it was being speculated that Modi might make an announcement on OROP in his speech on Independence Day, he did not give a specific timeline for the implementation of the scheme. He stressed that talks were in final stages to work out the nitty-gritty and reiterated that the government has in-principle accepted the demand for OROP.
Reacting sharply to the PM's Independence Day speech, the protesting ex-servicemen said that the OROP had already been accepted in principle in the past. "I am sorry, it was accepted in principle 17 months ago and he has also accepted it. I want to ask the Prime Minister, what is holding the implementation of OROP," Chairman of Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement Major General Satbir Singh (Retd), questioned.
"According to us, there is nothing but bad intention of the bureaucracy and it is given to them by the political system which is holding it now," Singh said.
Some veterans even went to the extent of calling Prime Minister a "liar" and said that the OROP protests would only intensify. In its poll manifesto, the BJP had said that the party would implement the OROP policy within hundred days of the NDA coming to power.
The protesters had put up a large LCD screen at Jantar Mantar to watch Modi's speech. However, as soon as they realised that Modi has not announced OROP, they switched it off.
"I am ashamed of the PM. We want the OROP without any dilution. What talks, when and how long. Where is General VK Singh, where is Colonel Rathore? Why haven't they resigned," said Deepa Neb, whose husband as well as father served in the defence forces. Former Army Chief General (retired) VK Singh and Colonel (retired) Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore are ministers in the Modi government.
Pointing out that many governments have come and gone for years and the OROP issue came before each one of them, Modi said the OROP has been in-principle accepted by his government but talk are still on with various stakeholders.
"Every government has even given small promises but the issue has not been resolved. Even after I came, I have not been able to do it till now. Today, I am assuring my soldiers once again, in-principle OROP has been accepted by us but talks with stakeholders are on," he said.
"A solution has to be found for an issue which has been lingering for 20-25 years. I expect good news seeing the way the talks are going on. And that is why I again promise that in-principle, this government has accepted OROP," he said.
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