As the election season has dawned on the nation, this is time for one and all to apply pressure on leaders and “bend them like Beckham.” A whole lot of freebies and other promises will now be in the offing. In the forefront of such “pushers” now are the unions of government employees across states, demanding that the Contributory Pension Scheme be scrapped and the Old Pension Scheme be restored. Notably, when the nation shifted to the CPS from OPS, a major rise in salary had been granted to government employees by way of ‘compensation.’ After having accepted that too, the unions have started demanding a return to the OPS. Clearly, a tendency on the part of all is to have the cake and eat it too. Knowing the greed of politicians to win power, they will be ready and willing to go any lengths.
If so, the inherent dangers to the well-being of the national economy are beyond comprehension. Already, the pension bills of some state governments are higher than the salary bills. Sooner or later, other states will follow suit. As analysts point out, government employees forming only 3.2 percent of the workforce get nearly 20 percent of governmental earnings. 90 percent of the workforce – in private and the agricultural and service sectors, hardly have a finger in the governmental pie. What the poor, that form nearly 40 percent of the population, get is a paltry welfare pension or kits, which are justified because their earnings from the manual labour they put in are too meagre.
Manifestos are the key to feeding the greed of organised vested interests and other segments of the population that have bulk votes. The more avaricious or weak a politician running the affairs of the state or the nation is, the more the chances of vested interests extracting the maximum — with a promise to vote him or his party back to power. The Congress party, which was in the wilderness in recent years, has come up with the promise of restoration of OPS and won the recent elections. So did the AAP. The states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan have thus reverted to OPS. The manifestos of the Congress in Telangana and elsewhere might offer the same. Government employees claim the Congress, or the AAP, won the polls because their families voted en-bloc. Polls, rather, are fought on multiple issues. The Congress party’s desire to return to power is understandable. But, the party also has a great history of service to the nation. When parties make decisions, they must uphold national interests.