Veterans target government over OROP

New Delhi: Police evicting ex-servicemen from Jantar Mantar following an NGT order banning protests and dharnas around the historic monument, in New Delhi on Monday. Ex-servicemen have been agitating for OROP (One Rank One Pension). PTI Photo 

Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted the Congress in Himachal Pradesh, the Opposition party fielded a group of ex-servicemen leading the One Rank One Pension (OROP) agitation to hit out at the BJP-led government. Major Gen (retd) Satbir Singh, the face of the protest, accused the government of mistreating them. He also pointed out that there are about 1.4 lakh military personnel in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh.

Addressing a press meet at AICC headquarters, Singh slammed the BJP-led government for removing them from Jantar Mantar where they had been sitting on a relay hunger strike for over a year. He said the ex-servicemen had to protest because Prime Minister Modi forgot the promises on OROP he had made to them after the BJP came to power. He alleged that the police removed them from Jantar Mantar, destroyed their belongings and “manhandled” a woman protester. “We are living in a democracy… but the treatment meted out to us… it seems we are in a dictatorship… we are military personnel…,” he said.

Group Capt (retd) V K Gandhi said the government had conducted a “surgical strike” on the military veterans by removing them from Jantar Mantar. “The way they misbehaved with veterans, assaulted them… there cannot be a more shameful thing than this,” he said.

Although they appeared on the AICC podium with Congress leaders R P N Singh and Ajoy Kumar, the ex-servicemen said they were not extending support to Congress. “We are here to express our plight,” Satbir Singh said.