Sir,
We, the people of India, have recently been introduced with redefined meaning of two words i.e. OROP and ODOMOS by two national political leaders of very high stature. OROP originally used to denote One Rank One Pension, a long outstanding demand of defence forces has been lowered to taunt Rahul and Priyanka by their political opponent. Having served for four decades in the forces, I personally felt hurt on hearing the lowered use of this word in such a casual manner. I am not sure whether the leader in question did have any other way to publicly taunt his opponent. For general consumption of the public, OROP has though been implemented but not to the satisfaction of affected defence personnel. That is the reason why a large number of defence personnel under the leadership of one of very senior officer are protesting for last three years at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi and other locations. No doubt, the politicians have lowered their standards of language in order to prove their opponent unworthy of their political claims. We the people in defence forces are apolitical and do not like them to use us in these election gimmicks. We raise our issue/concerns through established platforms and would always expect political masters to pay due respect to these concerns in the larger interest of the nation. Veterans from defence forces fighting for their right have given prime youth in the service of nation. Any casual use of their concerns in raising the political hype by any party will cost the nation very dearly. Nation owes a lot to them. India has achieved a very prominent position in the comity of nations due to the fact that our defence forces could keep our potent aggressors away and maintain a long lasting peace in the region to achieve sustained growth. Security scenario in neighborhood does convey the vulnerability, and a conscious audit of the same speaks volume about the role these honored veterans have played in their service career. This is a most disciplined class of citizens who have deep faith in our constitution and no amount of such cheap taunts can disturb their thought process. It is therefore a sincere urge to our leaders to be more practical in making any reference to such acronyms that are used to convey the concerns of these respected veterans. Any casual reference may prove counterproductive by hurting the sentiment of these retired soldiers. Jai Hind.
Mahesh Chander Sudan
on e-mail
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