Armed Forces veterans, who have been protesting at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for over two years, accused the Delhi Police of “harassing them by repeatedly by detaining them at police stations”.
Major General (Retd.) Satbir Singh, who has been the face of the One Rank One Pension (OROP) protests in Delhi, took the unusual step of addressing the media at the Congress headquarters.
Press conference
“Today [on Thursday], 12 of our members were picked up by the Delhi Police from Patel Chowk metro station and left around 5 p.m. Are we criminals that we are being treated this way?” said the angry retired Major General at the press conference.
Citing a National Green Tribunal order, the Delhi Police had on Monday cleared Jantar Mantar of all protesters, including the Armed Forces veterans.
Situated barely 500 metres from Parliament, Jantar Mantar has been synonymous with protests and activism. But a recent NGT order directed the area to be cleared of protests to reduce “noise pollution” and asked the government to look for alternative sites at Ramlila Maidan.
‘No toilets’
“We have no problem with the order but we had written to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Delhi government that the area doesn’t have facilities like toilets. Women come and attend these protests. We were given time to shift there till November 3 [Friday] but they manhandled us and removed us on October 30 [Monday],” said Major General (Retd.) Singh.
‘Manhandled’
He alleged a female volunteer and a retired Junior Commissioned Officer were manhandled, documents destroyed and equipment like camera and computers damaged.
“Are we terrorists that we are being treated this way? I have served for 40 years but not seen this sort of dictatorship before this,” he said.
Asked if the veterans would support the Congress in the poll-bound Himachal Pradesh, the Retired Major General said,“We have come to the principal Opposition party with our grief and pain…But I am sure Himachal, which has 1.6 lakh soldiers, is seeing what this government is doing to us.”
Former UPA Minister R. P. N. Singh, who sat beside the veterans at the press conference, said the Congress was providing a “platform to the veterans out of respect for their service to the nation”.
