Armed with anger: Indian former military veterans return medals

They protest over BJP move to fix pensions for ex-army personnel

After artists and writers, former Indian military personnel have now also started returning their medals in protest against the policies of the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, Indian media reported.

Retired military men were set to return their medals on Tuesday to protest against the government move to fix pensions for military veterans.



In Delhi, medals will be returned outside the busy terminal-1 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport. General Secretary of the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement VK Gandhi told the Hindustan Times that veterans would return medals at crowded places to educate the common man about the issue of the government’s One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme. “We reject the OROP notification by the government. We will continue with [our] agitation and intensify it further,” he added.

“Will request all ex-servicemen to return their medals and explain to citizens that OROP has not been given to us...The OROP notification issued by the government doesn’t meet the definition of one rank, one pension. In fact, it murders the definition of OROP,” said Gandhi.



On Saturday, the Modi government formally notified the OROP scheme that it claims will benefit more than 2.4 million veterans and 600,000 war widows. However, the scheme was rejected by former military personnel, who launched a movement earlier this year to pressure the government to accept their demands. Critics of the ruling right-wing BJP accuse it of not doing enough to counter the extremism of Hindu nationalists and to protect freedom of expression in secular but Hindu-majority India.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2015.