The Congress on Thursday got a boost with a prominent ex-servicemen’s organisation coming out in its support for the upcoming Assembly elections, even as it expressed its disappointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not implementing the one rank, one pension scheme according to its demands.
It also welcomed the fact that the Congress manifesto in Punjab would incorporate other demands for the welfare of ex-servicemen.
This endorsement, the Congress hopes, will particularly help it in Punjab and Uttarakhand, two rich recruiting grounds for the armed forces.
At the AICC headquarters earlier on Thursday, the Indian Ex-Servicemen’s League (IESM), which has been leading an agitation for the pension scheme with a relay fast at the Jantar Mantar here for the past 571 days, declared its support for the Congress in the presence of Punjab’s Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh and the Chief Ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Virbhadra Singh and Harish Rawat, respectively. Also present was party general secretary in charge of Punjab and Uttarakhand Ambika Soni.
As press conferences go, this was an unusual event with as many IESM members as journalists in the room.
IESM chairman Major-General (Retd) Satbir Singh made an emotional appeal, quoting Chanakya to say that a king is not worthy of respect if a soldier has to go to him to seek something for him or his family.
As he hit out at the Prime Minister for not fulfilling his promise on the one rank, one pension scheme, the room rang out with cries of “national shame, national shame”.
