Decision on OROP before Bihar poll dates are announced

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that an annual review was not feasible and would set a wrong precedent. He said the “only difficulty” was the “arithmetical translation”. “We would like to safeguard the interest of those soldiers who retire at age of 35 or 38 and society must protect them … and therefore, some higher pension on a special formulation is understandable but then it can’t be revised every year,” he said while talking to the media.

The announcement of the dates of the Bihar Assembly elections seems to be the cut-off point for a resolution of the one rank, one pension (OROP) issue.

The RSS, at its three-day coordination meet with the BJP and the government asked for a speedy solution and an end to the hunger strike by ex-servicemen.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who met ex-servicemen had set out the time frame: before elections in Bihar were announced and the model code of conduct kicked in.

The group that met the Defence Minister, the National Ex-Servicemen Co-ordination Committee, was different from the one that is representing ex-servicemen in the talks. That group is called the United Ex-Servicemen Movement and is led by Lt. Gen. (Retd) Balbir Singh and Maj. Gen. (Retd) Satbir Singh.

The RSS had already declared its intention to take up the matter with the government at its biannual coordination meeting with the BJP, where senior Ministers were expected to give presentations about their Ministry’s work. These meetings are a stocktaking exercise on the direction of the Parivar, with inputs from various affiliates and the RSS’s own network of workers. Important feedback and course correction are discussed. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat presides over this meeting.