Suicide by ex-army man and OROP row

Retired Army man Ram Kishan Grewal committed suicide on November 2, 2016 because he was getting less pension. 

The 70-year-old ex-serviceman was involved in a protest for implementation of the promised OROP scheme. He was leading a protest and reportedly reached Delhi on Monday to meet the defence minister with an application stating that despite the implementation of the OROP, the soldiers have not received the increased pension as per the sixth and seventh pay commission along with the due arrears.

He committed suicide by ingesting “Sulfas”, a pesticide, while he and 10 others were returning to Jantar Mantar on Tuesday after failing to meet Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and defence minister Manohar Parrikar over the non-implementation of OROP. He died later that day at RML Hospital.

Grewal was working for social welfare and had won several accolades for his contribution to social service and for changing the face of his village ‘Bamla’ in Haryana. He was also awarded the ‘Nirmal Gram Puruskar’ by the then President, Pratibha Patil, in 2008.

Bamla village became the first few ‘Nirmal Grams’ in Haryana. The government of India had launched this award for fully sanitised and open defecation-free Gram Panchayats in 2003 and gave away the first awards in 2005 as a component of its flagship scheme ‘Total Sanitation Campaign’.

It is difficult to believe that such a man will commit suicide without fighting for his rights. His suicide shows that he lost all hopes for getting his dues. Government is coming up with excuses that it was calculation error on part of State Bank of India. But why did it happen? Why was error not corrected even after repeated requests from ex-serviceman? Why was bribe demanded from ex-serviceman for correcting calculation error? Why did ministers of Modi government refused to meet ex-serviceman? Why have government not taken any action against officials responsible for calculation mistake? These are some questions which needs to be answered. Why should we not hold prime minister responsible for this calculation mistake which took life of an ex-serviceman when we give credit of any street being cleaned by sweepers? We don't say that street was cleaned by sweepers and PM have nothing to do with it, we say that PM has put all procedures in place to force sweepers to do their duty instead. Now if PM has not put any check on corrupt officials of government and State Bank of India and allowed them to get bribe from ex-servicemen by doing deliberate calculation mistakes and correcting them only after getting bribe then why should he not be held responsible for it.