A government that does not care for national interests, first and foremost, is not worth its salt. A government that caves in to pressure and acts against national interests or one that acts in selfish ways to win votes and power is a curse on both the nation and its people. The thought arises in the context of a reply in parliament that five state governments want to revert to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for their employees. OPS had been replaced in 2004 with a Contributory Pension Scheme, to which funds were raised in part from employees’ own monthly salaries and a matching input by the respective government.
Notably, OPS was abolished by the AB Vajpayee-led NDA government while the states that want to return to the old scheme – Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand – are ruled by non-BJP governments. The Congress had even given a pre-electoral promise in states like Himachal that it would bring back OPS. In several other states too, employees’ organisations are “demanding” that they want to return to the old system, wherein the entire pension amount would be paid by the government. Government employees and their families form about 20 percent of the population and can be a “vote bank” for one or other political party. The Congress is likely to make this promise in other states too.
Financial experts and RBI itself had gone on record to stress that OPS was a major drain on national resources, which could otherwise be used for promoting national growth and strengthening the Defence sector with more fund allocations. India spends just one-fifth of what China spends on defence as this country, caught in a splurge, does not have the resources to spend more. National security, the prime requirement to every individual, is thus at serious risk. Moreover, a new thinking on pensions is highlighted by multiple activist groups. They argue that government employees are not the only ones who serve the nation or its people. Farmers who feed the people even in the face of frequent natural calamities and pest attacks on crops recently started getting a measly six thousand rupees a year. In fact, every individual is working in his or her own ways to make a living or to make more wealth for themselves. In the process, each individual adds his or her mite to the GDP. A special consideration for one or another segment is uncalled for, except in the case of those in the defence forces that in extraordinary situations stake their lives for the nation, it is argued. Hence, the One Nation, One Pension demand.