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Ex-servicemen raise the pitch

Parul Sharma

NEW DELHI: With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, its one-rank-one-pension demand pending, has declared it would support any political party that accepts its demand.

“Pension is a payment for past services rendered. We are demanding that an old pensioner should get the same pension as a new pensioner, provided they both have rendered an equal length of service and have retired from the same rank. It’s a demand for equity and justice,” Lt. General Raj Kadyan, chairman of the IESM, told a press conference here on Thursday.

“We have deposited over 13,500 medals with the President as a gesture of protest on the issue. We will continue our movement. We will vote for only that party which accepts our demand. Some soldiers will also contest the elections,” he added.

This past week Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani expressed his support for the one-rank-one-pension principle and promised to implement it if voted to power.

Asked if the IESM was warming up specifically to the BJP, Lt. Gen. Kadyan said: “Our core group is yet to decide on that. We’ll take a formal decision and declare the name of the political party we will be supporting...”

The IESM members felt their demands have remained unheeded because ex-servicemen did not form a sizeable vote bank.

“A number of schemes were announced to enable Army personnel to cast their vote from wherever they are posted. But that could not work out. In a democracy the strength is in numbers. We can consolidate about 10 crore votes of our soldiers, ex-servicemen, their family members and friends,” said Lt. Gen. Kadyan.

Past promises

Major General Pravesh Renjen said one-rank-one-pension was an old demand that was “neither unique nor extraordinary.”

“In its election manifesto for the 2004 parliamentary elections, the Congress had said the issue would be re-examined. However, the UPA government led by the same party has now rejected the demand citing administrative, financial and legal difficulties. These so-called difficulties were very much there even in 2004,” he added.

Major Gen. Renjen said: “The ‘administrative difficulty’ is reportedly born out of a perceived apprehension that in case this demand was granted to military pensioners, it could set off similar demands from other civilian employees. This amounts to ignoring the uniqueness of the military service.”

In the quest for a “younger” army, 85 per cent of defence personnel are compulsorily retired between 35 and 42 years of age when their financial needs are the greatest. A government employee works till the age of 60, he pointed out.

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