OROP DENIED

Ex Servicemen get a short shrift again

Inclusion of ‘one rank one pension’ in the Hon’ble President’s speech to the joint session of the Parliament on 4th June 2009 had rightly raised expectations. This is the first in the last twenty-five years this demand has received this kind of attention..

The government’s high powered committee to re-examine the issue was already in session. This committee (CabSec) headed by the Cabinet Secretary had six other top bureaucrats of the country – Secretaries of Home, Defence, Expenditure, Pensions & PW, DOPT and Ex-Servicemen Welfare. It was expected that the CabSec would come up with a fresh approach. Did the CabSec fulfil those expectations? The analysis of their 21-page report follows.

The CabSec refers to reports of various earlier committees and Groups of Ministers (GOM) that examined the issue in the past. Somehow, it only quotes from reports that did not favour grant of OROP. For example, the Parliamentary Committee report headed by Madan Lal Khurana had made a forceful case for OROP, going to the extent of saying that even if there was no precedent, it must be created now. This finds no mention in the CabSec report.

The CabSec has also quoted the SC judgment on a petition filed as a sequel to the decision of the SC in DS Nakara and Ors Vs Union of India.. This has been cited to support CabSec contention against grant of OROP. However, they have made no mention of the recent 8.9.2008 SC judgement in Vains Vs Union of India case dealing with pensions of pre-1996 Maj Generals; it is suggestive of grant of OROP.

The CabSec quotes from the advice of the Law Ministry to the GOM in 2005. “The pensioners as a group consist of persons with different number of years of service and different average pay during the relevant period. If all of them are treated alike by providing same pension while ignoring their respective variations in length of service and average pay, that may amount to treating unequals as equals.” When we consider that the demand of OROP is based on seeking equation among pensioners of same rank and with same length of service this legal opinion becomes irrelevant. This advice might have been rendered in a contextually different situation.

The CabSec refers to a DO of 13 Mar 2009 from the Defence Minister to the Finance Minister on the subject of OROP, “While acceptance of the demand for grant of ‘One Rank One Pension’ is not feasible administratively...” The Defence Secretary who would have approved the draft of this DO was also sitting on the ibid CabSec. So much for unbiased opinion and impartiality on a subject crucially important to the two million Ex-Servicemen!

The CabSec further states that “Grant of OROP cannot be implemented for Ex Servicemen alone and demand for similar dispensation for civilian pensioners would also arise. This dispensation would then have to be extended to pensioners in autonomous bodies, Central and State Universities and Colleges and in all other institutions where the pension scheme is applicable. The financial implications for such a dispensation would then be substantial.” Taking cue from the aforesaid Law Ministry advice, the CabSec could have – and should have – also highlighted the stark differences in service conditions of military personnel vis-a-vis other government employees, and that the ‘unequals’ should not be treated as equals. But they did not, and surely not because of an oversight.. The fiscal stick is the usual weapon for bureaucrats to beat the politicians with and is so much déjà vu. They inflate the scope of demand to an extent where its rejection is the only option left. Without doubt the same argument would have been used many times in the past, including when the free rations for officers were introduced in 1983. Luckily for the defence forces the then PM Indira Gandhi had the sagacity and strength to overrule the objections.

The Ex Servicemen are very much conscious that finances are a problem.. They are agreeable to the expenditure on OROP being spread over more than one financial year if so required; they are more interested in having OROP accepted as a principle. With the allocation of money being made routinely for so many other schemes, the Ex Servicemen get an uneasy feeling that they do not figure anywhere on the list of government priorities.

Having (selectively) cited past findings and recommendations the CabSec then states, “In view of the factors mentioned above, it is not considered feasible to grant ‘One Rank One Pension’ for the following reasons: ....”

These reasons have been listed as:

1. Various committees have considered in the past and found no justification for OROP.
2. Successive pay commissions have not recommended it.
3. Acceptance of the OROP principle has substantial financial implications (8000 to 9000 Cr per annum).
4. Revision of pay scales at times accompanied with revision of educational qualifications/restructuring of cadres/duties attached to the post, the benefit of which need not be passed on to the past pensioners. (Not a new point; it is picked up from the V Pay Commission report).
5. The 1991 SC judgment found the OROP claim untenable.
6. Ministry of Law also opined that the same pension for the same rank is not an acceptable proposition.
7. The GOM in 2005-06 also did not recommend OROP.

The above ‘following reasons’ are a mere summation of seven past selectively chosen reports/recommendations that the CabSec had already cited earlier in their report. Supporting the status quo is always the easiest course, requiring no application of mind. In the instant case it is rather sad. The government had constituted this high powered body and it was expected that with their long experience and breadth of vision they would examine the problem de novo and inject some fresh ideas. Instead, they merely produced a summary of past findings and used it as the basis for their recommendations. This could have been done even by the secretarial staff, with the Secretaries merely pinning their signatures. The report does little to dispel the nagging suspicion that the constitution of the committee, and the statements of two Hon’ble Cabinet Ministers in the Parliament conveying an impression that OROP had been granted, was a mere diversionary exercise, sans sincerity.

The pensions of past (pre-1.1.2006) retirees will surely get enhanced. The exact quantum of increase will be known only after the government orders are issued. However, they would not come at par with the post-1.1.2006 retirees. OROP has been denied.

- Article to be published in Hindi in "Hari Bhoomi" by Lt Gen Raj Kadyan (retd) , Chairman IESM, Fwd by Col(Retd) NK Balakrishnan 10 Aug 09.

ON INDEPENDENCE DAY

My grandfather was a Colonel in the Army and his three sons joined him there. My earliest memory is how alive the house seemed with all these four 6 footers together. Larger than life with fierce moustaches of all types…my nana amd mamas were my earliest heroes. I extended this same unconditional love to the Armed Forces. The olive greens, the black boots lined up in a military row, gleaming like only a soldier’s boots can, the dress uniforms with the polished gold bottons, the solitary camp cot whose narrow confines held all of us wriggling in it like puppies, the white enamel mugs which seemed to hold the very essence of this glamorous life….I think I loved all of it with a white hot intensity.

My father was also in the Forces…I saw another aspect of the Forces with him…fearless warriors patrolling the very skies….I grew up on campuses and I did not know what fear meant. We were the military kids and we were the protectors. I remember being puzzled when adults questioned me “who are you?’…I actually replied that I was an Indian.

I got married outside the forces and saw a different side of life…but my love affair with the Forces never came to a halt. I have seen life come a full circle…when I was really young, the finest of the fine entered our Armed Forces. It was a matter of pride and honour to serve one’s country. And those who joined here could be spotted a mile off…they never tolerated any injustice , they were truly fearless…I had one mama who must have been in his late forties, who while escorting me beat up a guy who said something very nasty to me and who had made the mistake of thinking that I was traveling alone! The way my mama thrashed him with just his bare hands was a sight to behold. The predator turned prey did not have breath in his body to beg for mercy! Contrast that to the hordes who pass by when a woman is being molested and choose to keep mum! I have countless such stories…my nana aged but he still remained a lion. When one walked with him, one could sense the aura of powerful protection he exuded!

Then I saw how people began avoiding a career in the Forces. To become a soldier was now associated with foolishness…keeping pace with the marching materialism, fighting for one’s country was equated with outdated notions of idealism. What place does idealism have in our lives today? What do we teach our kids…do we teach them at winning is what counts or do we teach them that losing gracefully too is an art? Money is the biggest motivator for us today…money and the soldier are opposing forces. A Soldier cannot be money minded! A business man is money oriented, so is a trader, so is a householder! A soldier protects and defends…he fights. No more and no less!

And what do we give him in return? I ask you this question…how do we repay a man who takes up arms in our defence? How can we repay them? These questions are so relevant today because we see it for ourselves that our systems are collapsing but our Armed Forces still stand tall.

Give a soldier his due. He asks for nothing so should we take him so much for granted? While rescuing frightened people during the Mumbai attacks in November, a soldier told them “Do not fear! To get at you, they will have to get me first,”….just one line but what a world of meaning!

If we all did our duty as bravely and unflinchingly as the soldier, we would be in a far happier position today. For to live life with honour is still one of the finest tenets to follow!

-Prem Nath Bhaskaran
Tuesday, 18 August, 2009, 12:43 PM

GOI MEMO ON PAYMENT OF "ADDITIONAL PENSION"

Dear Veterans,

Please do have a look at the portal http://pensionersportal.gov.in/ for
implementation of Government's decision on the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission - Revision of pension of pre-2006 pensioners. (Clarification regarding Payment of Additional Pension/Family Pension) (dated 11/08/2009)

Regards
Col Nair