Why we must not celebrate OROP victory just yet
Whether the armed forces and the people of India recognise it or not, it was the 83-day long relay hunger strike by veterans that forced the government to accede to their legitimate demand for the “one rank one pension” (OROP). The veterans resorted to Jantar Mantar agitation and the hunger strike that came after years of petitioning, parliamentary resolutions and Supreme Court judgement failed to move the government, seemed to have done the trick. The home truth that taking to the street in agitation mode gets results than all other democratic methods is a bitter lesson unlikely to be forgotten by both serving and retired military men, though they are so alien to good order and discipline ingrained in their lives.
Thus the veterans’ agitation, rather than the grant of OROP, is a watershed event that will continue to haunt civil-military relations in the country. None of the stakeholders would be happy about it. But it is a logical sequence to six decades of neglect of armed forces and their problems by the nation. The sooner the government and the people recognize it, the better it is for the country lest it becomes an irreversible trend.
So the Modi government should take corrective action to halt it, rather than congratulate itself for bringing the OROP issue hopefully to a closure. Of course, veterans are thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for upholding his promise to implement the OROP though it was done 15 months after assuming office. But they will have to thank not only Modi and the Defence Minister Parikkar but also the RSS that seemed to have given the final push to Modi to end the folly of allowing the veterans to agitate too long. Needless to say, in the veterans eyes RSS has probably gained greater credibility than the BJP, they voted for.
The Modi government’s decision has only a revived a system of defence pension that Ms Indira Gandhi’s government had abolished unilaterally in 1973. So the government has now redressed an injustice done to the veterans 42 years ago, rather than dishing out goodies to keep the soldiers in good humour as some of the bureaucrats and media scribes seem to think. And it is not enough.
It is time for the prime minister and the BJP to do some serious soul searching on how things came to this sad pass. Though the Prime Minister swore to implement it before the tiranga on Independence Day, it brought little comfort to the agitating veterans because it came only after a few aged veterans went on a fast unto death after over 70 days of agitation. Not only that; they had boycotted the golden jubilee of 1965 war in which they had given their blood, sweat and limbs. Finally, they had to go through a humiliating process of haggling with bureaucrats and middlemen for rectifying an injustice done to them.
All along the agitation, they had one request only: to be allowed to meet the Prime Minister to put across their case in a face to face meeting. However, he chose to ignore the request till the end. In hindsight, if he had done so on August 14, probably he could have defused the unpleasantness of allowing the situation to reach criticality in the later days. So the government was pushed to take the decision to accept the veterans demand as time was running out with the nearing of zero hour for announcement of Bihar state election neared even as some of the aged veterans on a fast unto death started sinking in the hospital.
Perhaps this is the reason why the OROP announced by the defence minister is good in parts, like the curate’s egg. It has left enough inbuilt glitches to keep the issue alive, while dividing the ranks of veterans. Probably only the finance minister, who sneered at the whole OROP proposal of “annual increment” to pension (as he misinterpreted the concept), and the babudom he presides over had the last laugh at the confusion that seems to be dogging the announcement. This has left the leaders of the veterans in a dilemma and uncertainty. It is not certain that veterans will say “we will be back” like General Douglas Macarthur did when he retreated from Philippines during the World War II.
That would be tragedy because veterans are respected members of the armed forces biradri where the collective wisdom prevails more than the individual. The jawan of today is better informed on political happenings than the officers of our times. And he is going to be the veteran tomorrow. So the process of repairing civil-military interface should start now. If the government and political parties choose to ignore the writing on the wall, it could cause more unpleasantness in the years to come.
Though I would very much like to be more positive, I do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel will need be cleared of the debris of years of neglect, though the revival of OROP gives a thin ray of hope seeping through the muck.
The problem is not with the system but the leaders who are supposed to drive it. National security does not occupy the space it deserves in the scheme of things in the country, regardless of the endless spiel everyone dishes out about armed forces’ sacrifices. Already a few committees have gone into the problem and their recommendations are collecting dust in the archives of MoD. Hopefully the defence minister Parikkar, who appears to be more result oriented than his predecessors, implements the recommendations on the key issues soon.
But veteran’s issues are a different ball game. They have been treated like the aged, physically challenged, visually impaired and transgender whose voices do not excite the government. Veterans need an interface to talk to the government. The MoD has proved it will not be able to do this; probably it is already enough on its plate in dealing with serving soldiers. And its department of ex-servicemen’s welfare has singularly failed to deliver value to veterans.
If Narendra Modi wants to make a difference to the lives of veterans, he should immediately constitute a permanent veterans commission to proactively advise him, not merely on veterans issues, but on putting to use the trained and disciplined manpower of veterans for nation building.
After going through their ordeal veterans have probably learnt how to deal with the two upper castes that run the country: the politician in power and the bureaucracy. Veteran’s also had compete for media space for their struggle with the media tycoon and socialite Indrani Mukherjea with her good looks and dark deeds of murdering her daughter. Despite lurid tales of Ms Mukherjea and her shenanigans, some of the diehard votaries of OROP, including a 92-year old Major, rewrote the script by going on a fast unto death that was lapped up by the sensation-hungry visual media.
The long struggle also exposed the limitations of veterans joining political parties. After all, both General VK Singh who mustered veterans support for Modi and Col Rathore had joined the BJP and became part of the government. Did they make a difference? At least not to the agitating veterans; if they had helped their cause in the backroom, god bless them.
The Congress party’s disastrous response to the veterans’ struggle and the government announcement reminded me of the Charge of the Light Brigade. They could have gracefully apologized for sitting on the demand for a decade and welcomed the government announcement though it had was somewhat flawed. But Rahul Baba at helm these days believes in surprise strikes it seems. He suddenly noticed the OROP agitation gathering momentum at Jantar Mantar and tried to muscle in to gain some media mileage. However, when veterans shooed off his attempt, he wisely reverted back to the ‘other earthshaking national event’ - the FTII strike - to unearth the RSS “conspiracy” against national institutions.
Apparently, Rahul has continued to strategize the Congress response to the OROP announcement also. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand why the second most inarticulate (or is it incomprehensible?) leader of the Congress Party - AK Antony – was chosen to comment upon it. Antony had not covered himself with glory during his long tenure as defence minister. So it was not surprising to see him haltingly pronounce that the government had cheated the veterans by offering a diluted version of OROP than what the Congress had agreed upon. He conveniently forgot that he sat upon the proposal for nine long years as defence minister.
The BJP must be praying that Rahul Baba should continue to lead the Congress from the front, so that it can bask in reflected glory.