New Delhi: Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said that One Rank One Pension (OROP) was BJP's election promise and it was fulfilled after being consulted with various stakeholders.
"I feel that the promise has been fulfilled. The OROP notification was issued after consultations with nearly 300 various people and based on the suggestions mentioned in the paragraph 6.4 of Koshiyari committee. As per the committee the pay reviews in 5 years an acceptable proposal for OROP," he said.
He said, "In democracy, if anybody has any issues, he can go to the judicial commission. All I wanted to say that burning or disrespect to service medals is neither good for the nation nor to defence services. They were honoured with medals for service to the nation; it’s not a service condition."
On Wednesday, high drama was seen at Jantar Mantar in the national capital where two veterans tried to burn their medals in protest against the OROP scheme announced by the Narendra Modi government.
Amid slogans against the government, the veterans, who had also sat on a hunger strike, tried to burn their medals before the camera glare. However, others stopped them, with Maj Gen Satbir Singh, (Retd) asking them not to burn the medals.
Later, the veterans, numbering around 50, marched towards Rashtrapati Bhavan in protest but were stopped by the Delhi Police at Rail Bhavan. The developments came a day after some ex-servicemen returned their medals in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab.
Parrikar had said he was pained to see the medals being returned. "Medals are given by the country for the service and gallantry acts that the soldiers have rendered. A section insisting on returning the medals because one is not happy with certain clauses of OROP, for which the government is paying over Rs 8,000 crore, is demeaning the medal itself," Parrikar had said.
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