Commenting on the OROP protests, the Gandhi said, “This is a volcano getting ready and it will erupt sometime, somewhere”. The protests have been going on for over four months now at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
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A delegation of five protesters has been allowed to go to Rashtrapati Bhavan, according to a report.
General secretary of the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, Group Captain VK Gandhi, Thursday, termed the protest towards the “One Rank One Pension” (OROP) scheme introduced by the federal government as “a volcano getting ready to erupt”.
Delhi Police, however, stopped the protest march before it could reach Rashtrapati Bhavan.
“These (medals) were won by them on the battlefield for gallantry or distinguished service, and are worn with pride”. Earlier, two ex-servicemen had tried to burn their medals, before being stopped by fellow protesters, reported the Press Trust of India.
Stating that it was an insult to the military fraternity to accuse them of indiscipline, Capt Amarinder said, “If this country has an institution that is completely loyal and disciplined, it is our armed forces; your statement is nothing but an insult”.
The veterans listed seven changes made by the government, including annual equalisation, the 2013-14 financial year as the base year for calculating pension, and taking the highest pension scale of 2013 as the base for calculation and not the average as announced by the government.
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“A section insisting on returning the medals because one is not happy with certain clauses of OROP, for which the government is paying over Rs 8,000 crore, is demeaning the medal itself”, Parrikar had said. “We shouldn’t forget that for 40 years there was nothing called OROP as it was being promised, but was never delivered”, he added.
