PM should stop lying on OROP: Rahul

"Modiji you should stop lying that OROP has been implemented. If it was so, then why the ex-servicemen have been sitting at Jantar Mantar for 509 days over the issue,” Gandhi told reporters here after meeting the veterans at the party headquarters. The Congress vice-president said the ex-servicemen, during the meeting, told him if the Centre tells them that they can’t do anything, nobody will have an issue. He said the ex-serviceman claimed, “What Modiji is calling OROP, is only pension enhancement scheme.” 

According to the veterans, OROP is not a money matter, it’s about respect and justice, Gandhi said. “Can’t understand what’s happening in the country, no respect for farmers and ex-servicemen,” the Congress leaders told reporters. Gandhi also attacked the Prime Minister saying the government has one lakh ten thousand crores for the industrial houses but has no money for the soldiers and farmers. He reiterated his demand that the Centre apologise to the family of the deceased veteran Subed ar Ram Kishan Grewal for the inhuman treatment by the police. “While his body was in the hospital for post-mortem, the kin were detained for hours for no reason,” Gandhi said. 

Earlier, former Defence Minister and Congress leader AK Antony also spoke to media accusing the Modi Government of cheating the soldiers. “Prime Minister must fulfill the long cherished dream of lakhs of ex-servicemen who sacrificed their prime youth for the country. He should order the implementation of OROP,” Antony said. 

Slamming the Congress for playing politics over an ex-soldier’s suicide, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley blamed administrative lapse on the part of bank for not remitting the entitled pension after he was granted OROP. 

Taking Congress VP Rahul Gandhi head-on, he said no one should try to change a personal tragedy into political gain, especially by a party whose fortune is already sinking. The UPA govt, he said, had not taken any meaningful step towards implementing OROP for defence personnel in its 10 years of rule as was evident from a meagre Rs 500 crore allocation it made for the purpose.