By Cdr GJ Singh (Retd)
The welfare of the Indian Armed Forces is often the subject of many discussions and debates at Prime Time on our Television Channels. We frequently find articles and essays on OROP in our newspapers and magazines. On social media, veteran groups are flooded with articles full of disparaging comments that the Government of the day has not fulfilled its promise and commitment of One Rank, One Pay.
We need to balance our approach to understanding whether these last ten years from 2014 onward have made an impact or not on the lives of our veterans and their families and improved their standard of living and lifestyle. It has undoubtedly made the lives of veteran officers comfortable. However, there is still a big scope for improvement for soldiers, i.e., Personnel Below Officers Rank (PBORs).
Let us have a balanced approach between the Pre 2014 era and our OROP Status in 2024. From the time of this issue, let us look at the origins of the OROP from the time of the birth of our Independent Nation in the year 1947. Since Independence, the model of deciding pensions for our armed forces had been the “one rank one pension model” for almost 27 years. In 1973, after the Indo-Pak war of 1971, the Congress Government led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi terminated the OROP model. Then the Third Pay Commission further reduced the pension of our soldiers/veterans and increased the retirement pension of the civil defence employees.
In 1986, the Rajiv Gandhi-led Government implemented the Rank Pay Scheme in the Fourth Pay Commission. This brought the basic pay/salary of seven officers rank in the Army and their equivalents in the Navy and Air Force.
This resulted in reduced pensions for many veterans in the Armed Forces in 1986 and later years. This also caused asymmetry in the pay scales of the armed forces officers and their equivalent officers. This injustice and stepmotherly treatment by the former Governments resulted in discontent, rage, and uproar among the veterans. They threatened to agitate and take their demands of one rank one pay to the streets. To address this confusion and disappointment of the veterans, the government appointed the Koshyari Committee, which consisted of a ten-member all-party parliamentary panel chaired by Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
It submitted its report after twenty-five years during the UPA Government led by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. The committee met the veterans’ demands of OROP and stated an equal pension should be paid for an equal length of service of the same rank irrespective of the retirement date.
Also, any future increase in the pension rate should be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. However, the UPA Government did not implement the OROP Scheme but continued to hoodwink the veterans and deliberately delayed its implementation. With this behaviour of the government, the veterans lost their patience and faith. They took to nationwide agitations and processions. Several veterans returned the gallantry and service medals to the President of India, the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. Many ex-servicemen’s organisations went on hunger strikes at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
Meanwhile, it was time for Lok Sabha elections in 2014. The opposition party, namely, the BJP, supported the demands of the veterans. The then Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi demanded a white paper on OROP from the UPA Government at an Ex-Servicemen’s rally at Rewari in Haryana. He promised that he would implement the OROP Scheme if his party came to power at the centre.
Finally, in 2014, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi passed the order to implement the OROP Scheme. From a comparison of OROP data in the last decade (2014 – 2024) one can easily discern that there is a handsome financial package with benefits given by the Modi Government in its two tenures. The following expenditure data shows that the financial condition of the veterans and their families has improved since 2014 as compared to pre–2014 era, when the expenditure incurred by the Government was less than the expenditure given below.
- Total Number of Pensioners under OROP-I with effect from 1st July 2014 – 20,60, 220.
- Total Number of Pensioners under OROP-II with effect from 1st July 2019- 25 Lakh (Approx)
- Total Number of Pensioners under OROP-III with effect from 1st July 2024 – 21.56 Lakh (Approx)
- Total Number of Family Pensioners up to 30th June 2024- 6,12,356.
- Total Number of Disability Pensioners up to 30th June 2024- 2,25,561
- Annual expenditure under OROP I – Rs 7123.28 cr
- Annual expenditure under OROP II – Rs 8450.04 cr
- Annual expenditure under OROP III – Rs 6703.24 cr
Pension Budget and actual Expenditure since 2018-19 is as under in Rupees.
Financial Year Actual Expenditure
2018-19 – 101774.61
2019-20 – 117810.24
2020-21 – 128065.88
2021-22 – 116873.37
2022-23 – 153406.90
2023-24 – 142093.00
It shows that the present government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to honouring the promises made to the veterans.
In conclusion, as the saying goes ‘Give honour to whom it is due’. We must give due honour to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has actualised the welfare of our veterans in true word and spirit. He stands out as a man who has walked the talk.
(Cdr GJ Singh (Retd) is a Master Mariner and Senior Defence Analyst)
