In an unfortunate incident, a 70-year-old ex-serviceman hailing from Haryana’s Bhiwani district allegedly committed suicide by consuming poison on Wednesday at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi over the delay in implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP), police said.
The ex-serviceman, Ram Kishan Grewal left a suicide note in which he said that he was taking this extreme step for the benefit of soldiers.
Police said Grewal along with some other ex-servicemen was in the process of submitting a memorandum to the Defence Ministry over the issue of OROP.
According to his friends, Grewal had been upset over the issue for sometime.
Immediately after the news of the ex-serviceman’s death hit the headlines, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal jumped to the fray and attacked the Centre over the issue of One Rank, One Pension.
In a series of tweets, Kejriwal expressed grief over the incident and asked the entire country to fight for the rights of Jawans.
V sad. Soldiers fighting on border against external enemy n fighting within for their rights. Whole nation shud stand up for their rights https://t.co/deRYUV9J0y
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) November 2, 2016
The suicide comes two days after Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in a veiled attack on Congress over One Rank One Pension (OROP) for soldiers, had said that Narendra Modi government was the first regime to implement this scheme unlike others who merely paid “lip service” to the issue.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi who celebrated Diwali with the jawans at the Indo-China border in Himachal Pradesh on Sunday told them that he has fulfilled his dream to implement the One rank One pension.
