An OROP reprise: The need for accountability

By:

Deepak Sinha

A veteran paratrooper and consultant with the Observer Research Foundation, Deepak writes on matters of military and broader security concerns. His blog Para Phrase will seek to unravel issues in the security domain without fear or favour, mainly from a military perspective.

The OROP issue, for one reason or another, refuses to simply fade away like old soldiers are meant to, and feels more and more like a fish bone stuck in the craw, difficult to swallow or remove.  Undoubtedly, the past few days have been immensely disappointing for the military veteran community, given the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s directions on the matter of OROP. Fighting over money, and that too against the Government, goes completely against the grain for the vast majority of soldiers, even retired ones. They view such acts as purely mercenary and find it profoundly distasteful as it goes against their core beliefs of honour, loyalty and sacrifice. 

Thus, for them to have decided to confront the very Government they once looked up to, and whose orders they blindly followed, suggests that they see themselves as having been have been shoddily treated and dishonoured. That in itself should be deeply disturbing, because of the adverse impact it is bound to have on serving personnel, many of whom are second or third generation, who now know the shabby treatment that awaits them in the future. 

What has been truly galling for most veterans, is not the fact that they have been denied their rightful dues, but that it has been done so arbitrarily and in such an inept and callous manner. As if, those in power wished to drive home the point that their contribution counts for little and they are now only seen as a burden on the state. Even more disappointing, was the manner in which the actions of Hon’ble Supreme Court only flattered to deceive. It initially came down hard on the Government for reneging on its commitment to the veterans, but subsequently accepted the Government’s plea of payment in instalments as it does not have Rs 28000 Crores to clear arrears pending for over three years. 

The truth is that veterans are not as gullible as the Court appears to have been, and have taken the Government’s contention with a pinch of salt. One has only to examine the Government’s Expenditure Profile 2023-2024, published in February of this year, to realise that their contention is not supported by the figures they have published. Suffice it to say that the 2023-2024 budget envisages and caters for an expenditure of a whopping Rs 50 Lakh Crores or thereabouts, an increase of around Rs 5 Lakh Crores over the Revised Estimates of last fiscal, with over Rs 4 Lakh Crores budgeted for subsidies and grants. To suggest that despite these enormous sums being available, the Government was unwilling or unable to provision for the amount it owes military pensioners, most of whom are solely dependent on this income, is truly telling. It clearly shows where the welfare of military veterans stands amongst this Government’s list of priorities.

Coincidently, it includes an increase of Rs 37,648 Crores on pensions, but yet somehow manages to reduce Defence Pensions (Demand No 22) by Rs 15000 Crores, from Rs 1.53 Lakh Crores in the Revised Estimates for FY2022-23 to Rs 1.38 Lakh Crores for the next year. These figures make no sense because the number of pensioners has certainly not reduced, and with the revised rates of pension fixation due for implementation, it should have instead increased. What these figures suggest instead, is that despite the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s directions the Finance Ministry had no intention of clearing these dues in the first place. In fact, leave aside arrears, from these figures it appears the CGDA has no plans to commence payment of pensions at revised rates any time soon. If this interpretation of data is not askew, as it very well may be due to ones limited exposure to accounting, then not only veterans but the Hon’ble Supreme Court has been duped as well.

Be that as it may, the issues before the Hon’ble Court should not just have been restricted to the payment of OROP arrears, pending for the last three years, but also to the question of how and why did we arrive at this pathetic state of affairs and who, if anybody, should be held accountable? After all, if the Controller General of Defence Accounts had done the job they are paid to do, the issue of arrears would not have come up at all. More importantly, it raises the question that with the refixation of OROP again due in 2024, as per government orders, are we likely to see a repeat of all the that has taken place till now? 

It can be nobody’s case that the political establishment has deliberately delayed payments, as some suggest, especially since this is one of the major achievements of Mr. Modi’s government and is frequently referred to by him in his public speeches. What may be more likely is that bureaucrats have erred, and are now building up an alternative narrative to hide their lapses from the political leadership? 

There is, thus, an urgent necessity for a detailed inquiry by an independent body to go into systemic failures that may have occurred and to pinpoint those individuals whose acts of commission or omission may have led to the prevailing problem. Not doing so will only further embarrass the Government in the coming days and allow those responsible leeway to cause further mischief, deliberate or otherwise. 

Finally, the political leadership would do well to delve into these matters as there is another scam waiting in the wings, to embarrass them further. It is with regard to the manner in which the CGDA has destroyed a well-run and smooth system of pension disbursement by introducing SPARSH on specious grounds. Apart from an increase in cadre strength, that will further burden the exchequer, it has also reportedly resulted in incurring an expenditure of over Rs 250 Crores in the development of software that has turned out to be an utter disaster, leaving huge numbers of pensioners in limbo cursing this government.