Dear Colleagues,
As part of IESM ongoing efforts to seek justice for the veterans’ community, I met the Defence Minister today (Feb 27). Gist of discussion ensues.
OROP
I made the following points:
· 1. OROP has been repeatedly recommended by Parliamentary Committees. These committees comprise elected members from different political parties. However, while rejecting these recommendations, the govt continues to stand by the report of the Cabinet Secretary’s Committee that had summarily rejected OROP without assigning any convincing reason. It leads to the unfortunate inference that the govt is being run not by the elected representatives but by the bureaucracy.
· 2 The ESM as a community are apolitical and would prefer to remain so. However, with the continual rejection of OROP in the last three years, there is a strong chance that the ESM would be alienated from the Congress, more so since the main opposition party has openly declared that they would grant OROP if elected to power.
· 3. Repeated rejection of this long pending demand might turn the disappointment of ESM into their frustration. It would be highly inadvisable to have a large section of society, who are trained in use of fire arms and explosives, frustrated. The govt should remain sensitive to this aspect.
The Hon’ble Minister assured me that he is fully sympathetic to the demand of OROP but there are various factors that are coming in the way in granting it in one go and that the govt is moving towards this goal in stages. On being specifically asked whether they are working towards giving another enhancement, he answered in the affirmative.
Widows’ Pension Enhancement
He himself stated that he was fully convinced that the demand was genuine and therefore had already got it cleared by the Defence Ministry. He told me that just prior to our meeting, he had called the Secretary ESW and had directed him to follow it up with other Ministries at the earliest. I asserted that I would check the progress in a fortnight’s time and if required meet him again; he was ok with it.
Miscellaneous
· On my raising the point that the govt continues to pursue legal cases till the last mile even though these have been rejected by the lower courts, the Minister stated that he has issued instructions to examine each case objectively. He further disclosed that he himself had directed against appealing in the pre-1973 Disabled Service Element case. I thanked him for it.
· I stressed there are cases that have been decided by the apex court and the government is still not implementing those judgments. I cited concrete examples. He noted the point but there was no discussion on it.
Concluding Remarks
In normal conversation, the Minister made very laudatory remarks about the defence forces in general. He was particularly appreciative of the fact that Services were a large family and even after retirement veterans remained attached to this family. He displayed genuineness in his appreciation and did not seem to be making these comments just for the sake of form.
Other IESM News
There continues a regular inflow of ESM telephone calls from across the country where they repose faith and confidence in the genuineness of IESM efforts. Enthusiasm is clearly discernible. Tomorrow (Feb 28), I am to participate in the programme of an education institute in Dundlot near Juhunjhunu in Rajasthan. It is not an ESM function. However, there have been a number of calls from that region in the last two days with ESM saying that they have read of it in the newspapers and they would want to participate. One cannot help feeling overwhelmed but also conscious of the heavy responsibility such trust brings on our shoulders.
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Best regards,
Lt Gen Raj Kadyan
Chairman IESM
262, Sector - 17A
Gurgaon - 122 001
