39.9
Indian Army Veterans and the ISSUE of O.R.O.P. – a Conceptual Reality
This paper is focused on the concept of O.R.O.P. (One Rank One Pension); O.R.O.P.—implies that uniform pension be paid to the Armed Forces personnel retiring with the same rank & same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement. The concept includes bridging the gap between the rate of pension of current pensioners and past pensioners. Factoring inflation rate, the financial condition of a soldier who retired in 1979 compared to a recent retiree is deplorable. Following several failed conversations on this topic, public appeals, protests, veterans held a MAHA SANGRAM RALLY & hunger strike at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi and 50 other locations nationwide on 15th June 2015. This type of protest by the veterans was un-parallel in the history of Armed Forces (India). The methodology of this paper is content analysis along with interviews of some veterans (taken during the protest, New Delhi).
This paper will discuss the concept of O.R.O.P.in details; analyze its partial implementation by the Department of Defense and current scenario & challenges faced by the veterans. Despite diverse political parties, the topic of O.R.O.P. has unified the country as one with the veterans. This phenomenon is rare in a country like India.
Professor Leena Parmar and Major Daljit Singh
University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India
E-mail: leenaparmar5@gmail.com