The vigorous agitation by India's military veterans over the one rank, one pension (OROP) scheme has had an unexpected fallout -it has given them political clout in poll-bound Punjab The movement helped the ex-servicemen get politically organised. "No one understood what kind of ill-treatment or degradation soldiers have faced since Independence in terms of pensions and other facilities. Today we have become politically organized and are being considered a strong vote bank. "For every welfare measure, we have to look towards politicians who are the real masters of our destiny. Ex-servicemen's participation in politics is the only way out for their problems," he explains.

Source: Economic Times January 29, 2017 06:11 UTC