New Delhi: The Old Pension Scheme (OPS), which was discontinued across India by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in December 2003 and replaced by the New Pension Scheme (NPS) from 2004, poses a threat to the BJP. has been made. To ruin the party’s electoral prospects in several states, ThePrint has learnt.
Union Ministry of Finance Said The Lok Sabha was told earlier this month that five states—Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh—had informed the Center about their decision to go back to OPS.
Of these, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Himachal are under the Congress government, Punjab is ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party and Jharkhand by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in alliance with the Congress and other parties. In Tripura, where state elections were held earlier this month, the Left Front has promised bring back Ops on coming to power.
Under OPS, Government employee Those who have worked for at least 20 years get 50 per cent of their last drawn pay as their pension. No contribution is made during this period, and pension is payable at the time of retirement of the employees.
On the other hand, under NPS, the government and the employee contribute 10 percent and 14 percent of the employee’s salary, respectively, to the pension fund. The investments of this pension fund are regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority in a diversified portfolio. The idea is that these contributions will add up and so the government can use these funds to pay for pensions when needed.
RBI has many reports have been marked Fiscal imprudence to return to OPS as it increases the liability of the Central Government manifold.
But the BJP is facing a strong push to bring back OPS by its own leaders and allies in states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. The issue has become particularly relevant after the BJP lost the Himachal assembly elections to the Congress last year. OPS was to be restored a major election promise Of Congress.
He said, ‘We have informed the high command about the results of the OPS. We lost power because government employees voted against us. The issue has generated enormous mistrust. If we had announced a committee before the elections to meet the demand of the OPS, things would have been different,” said Rajeev Bindal, former chief of the Himachal Pradesh unit of the BJP.
A senior BJP leader in Delhi admitted that “pressure is building on the party”.
“We have to choose between the devil and the deep sea. The pressure is building up and the party has to see at what scale we can take the risk, and our other efforts like the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi to sway public sentiments.” What happens for that,” he told ThePrint.
The leader said: “We faced the challenge of the farm loan waiver announced by the Congress (earlier), which created an impact and we lost three state elections in 2018 (Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh). Now OPS has shown its effect in Himachal. This was a small state where government employees were important, and in bigger states maybe this issue will have less impact on our chances, but it has the potential to damage.
BJP has been attack on Congress to announce return to OPS, but party leaders from Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra say “it (the strategy) is not working in favor of BJP”.
“We know the concerns of the employees and we have conveyed the same to the Centre. We are discussing the issue, but it is the central government that has to take a call on the OPS,” VD Sharma, president of the BJP’s Madhya Pradesh unit, told ThePrint.
However, the central party leadership says that the OPS is a burden on the economy.
“The Finance Minister has specified on this issue. Some states, which are financially strong, may implement it again, but in the long run it will affect the financial health of the economy,” said BJP spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal.
Read also: ‘Lauta Do Old Pension’: Steady Growth Of Old Pension Scheme Movement Across India
going against the party line
On 9 February, speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned against “reckless spending”.
“Look at the plight of neighboring countries. See how reckless borrowing has left those countries in debt. If we follow the same example and spend recklessly, as some states have done, thinking that future generations will have to bear the burden, then our country is also going to be ruined. Said,
Last Monday Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman emphasis on Said in Jaipur that the amount deposited under NPS cannot be given to states for OPS. “If any state expects that the money deposited in EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation) should be given to the states…then no,” he said.
Despite warnings, several BJP leaders – especially in BJP-ruled, poll-bound states like Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka – have publicly gone against the party line on OPS.
Last week, former Madhya Pradesh minister Gaurishankar Bisen while addressing employees during the state government’s ongoing Vikas Yatra in Balaghat said, demanded Implementation of OPS even if “the party expelled him”. Assembly elections are to be held in Madhya Pradesh this year.
He said, ‘Just as husband needs wife and wife needs husband in old age, similarly there is a need for old age pension scheme for the employees. Take my voice to Delhi, give old pension to the employees. It doesn’t matter if the party expels me, but if you go hungry, it matters,” Bisen said.
Bisen’s demand comes at a time when Madhya Pradesh is in campaign mode and rival Congress has already arrived Promise Restoration of OPS on coming to power. have been state employees sloganeering For the old pension scheme – a demand that was rejected by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led MP government in the assembly last December,
The buzz about the scheme is also growing in other BJP-ruled states, where leaders do not want to disturb the middle-class constituency.
In Karnataka, where elections are due this year, BJP MLA Ayanur Manjunath last month got included in Cycle rally of retired state government employees demanding return of OPS.
“Elected representatives are getting pension which is same as that of OPS. If the government thinks NPS is so good, it should be extended to MLAs as well,” said Manjunath.
In another BJP-ruled state, Haryana, where assembly elections are due next year, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has also ignored the Centre’s warnings on OPS. The state has taken this step after heavy opposition from the Employees Union Pension Restoration Sangharsh Samiti Settle Constitution of a committee to look into the demand for OPS.
In Maharashtra, where the BJP is in alliance with the Balasahebchanchi Shiv Sena, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the state’s finance minister, told the assembly in December last year that his government had no intention of bringing back the OPS as the financial the burden it will bring.
However, last month, Fadnavis Said The state government will “discuss it with (OPS) finance and other departments”. CM Eknath Shinde has also said that the state is “positive about the old pension scheme”.
The rival Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) appears to have made a U-turn after won Three of the five seats in the January 30 Maharashtra Legislative Council elections—the first election in the state since a rebellion against the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government—were marred by a rebellion by a faction of Shiv Sena legislators led by Shinde, who then defected to the BJP. shook hands with
‘No one is buying the financial burden theory’
Disquiet is increasing among BJP leaders due to not paying attention to the demand of the employees for the restoration of OPS.
A senior Maharashtra BJP leader told ThePrint, “It will not help to attack the Congress to instigate the workers. Here the beneficiary (of OPS) is not the opposition party, but lakhs of middle class families. It is the employees across India who are agitating to protect their pension. No one is buying the future financial burden theory. We have given this information to the high command. Ultimately we have to protect our current politics and this issue can harm us if it is not resolved in time.
A general secretary of the Madhya Pradesh BJP echoed his view, saying, “Sooner or later, we will have to resolve this issue, whatever arguments we give”.
Talking about the situation in Rajasthan, state BJP president Satish Poonia told ThePrint: “Whatever (Chief Minister and Congress leader) Ashok Gehlot promises, the situation here is such that people are waiting for the BJP to come to power. Are. Law and order is broken, there is unemployment and atrocities on women – all these will work against the Congress. Gehlot can save his government only with the support of government employees. As far as OPS is concerned, we have informed the Center about this issue. He has to take the final call.”
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, a labor organization and an affiliate of the BJP’s ideological parent RSS, has also demanded the Center reinstate the OPS.
(Editing by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Read also: States’ finances improving, but going back to old pension scheme could pose future risks: RBI