‘Promise on OROP was just poll plank to win elections’ Arun Jaitley told army veteran, says Maj Gen Satbir Singh

Army veteran Satbir Singh said Arun Jaitley told retired army personnel that promise on OROP was just a part of BJP's election campaign and it was never meant to be implemented.

New Delhi, Nov 3: Maj Gen(Retd) Satbir Singh, who has been leading ex-servicemen’s fight for the implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme, made  shocking allegation against Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Army veteran Satbir Singh said Arun Jaitley told retired army personnel that promise on OROP was just a part of BJP’s election campaign and it was never meant to be implemented. Instead of accepting demand of army veterans, Arun Jaitley asked us to ‘lower our expectations from the government’, said Satbir Singh.

Satbir Singh revealed that when a group of army veteran met Arun Jaitley when was holding the Defence portfolio, the senior BJP leader said bluntly that promise on OROP was mere a poll plank. Arun Jaitley clearly told us that all the promise made by politicians are not meant to be kept, said Satbir Singh. The retired major also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not holding talks with them over the issue of OROP.

“We told him that the OROP had only one definition. It had only one calculation. It had only one implication. We reminded him that this was in their election manifesto. To which he said, ‘You see General, all the assurances that politicians give during elections are not meant to be executed.’ What a shameful thing for him to say in front of ten of us. If a responsible minister says this then I have no faith in the political system,” Satbir Singh was quoted as saying by news portal Janata Ka Reporter. (ALSO READ: One Rank One Pension: Why Army veterans are still unhappy with Narendra Modi)

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had kept the promise of implementing “one rank, one pension” (OROP), Satbir Singh said his government and ministers don’t want to take the issue to a logical conclusion. “Prime Minister, his cabinet colleagues and ‘everybody else’ had time to ‘hold talks with terrorists to broker peace with them’ but they ‘cannot talk to their ‘erstwhile soldiers. Can there be bigger shame than this? ” Singh asked.

The issue of OROP drew attention once again after an ex-serviceman named Ram Kishan Garewal allegedly committed suicide protesting over the delay in the implementation of the scheme for retired army personnel. OROP scheme has been a long-standing demand of nearly three-million ex-servicemen and war widows in the country.