Several political leaders made a beeline to Bhiwani, Haryana, on Thursday to attend the funeral of ex-Army man Ram Kishan Grewal, who had committed suicide over the delay in implementing the One-Rank One-Pension Scheme. Haryana Transport Minister Krishan Lal Panwar announced Rs 10 lakh compensation to Grewal’s family and a job to his next of kin, while the Delhi government granted Rs 1 crore to his family, reported ANI.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi was among the first political leaders to reach the village on Thursday. He was accompanied by senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kiran Chaudhary, Kuldeep Bishnoi, Selja and others, reported IANS. Later in the day, he was detained for the third time in 24 hours when he reached the Jantar Mantar to join a protest against the soldier's death.

Advertisement

Trinamool Congress MP Derek O' Brien also paid a visit to the family. "I have come here on the directions of our leader Mamta Banerjee to be with the (Grewal) family," said Brien. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to meet Grewal's family later in the day.

Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia were detained on Wednesday when they reportedly attempted to meet Grewal’s family at a hospital in the Capital. While they blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the police action, the Bharatiya Janata Party countered their accusations by saying that Opposition parties were indulging in “politics over death”. “The suicide of ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal is unfortunate and our sympathies are with his family. What is even more unfortunate is the politics over his death,” said BJP’s national secretary Shrikant Sharma.

In his suicide note, Grewal, who had consumed poison at Jantar Mantar after he was allegedly denied permission to meet Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, had said that he was killing himself for the country's soldiers. His son said he had called his family and informed them of his decision to take his life because "the government had failed to fulfil their demands" related to the OROP scheme.

Advertisement

The Defence Ministry said Grewal’s pension had been sanctioned, but that the banks were responsible for the inordinate delay. “One lakh people are yet to get the full benefits of OROP, there is some technical issue in it. We will soon sort out the paperwork,” Parrikar told ANI.

The ministry had reinstated the OROP scheme in September 2015, more than 43 years after the formula for calculating pensions for those retiring from India's armed forces was terminated by the Indira Gandhi government. It formally notified the OROP scheme for more than 24 lakh ex-servicemen and six lakh war widows in the country on November 8, 2015.

However, the veterans had said the government's version had "seven serious shortcomings", which would nullify the definition of scheme. Ex-service personnel have held several major protests and hunger strikes demanding that their recommendations be included.