Veteran suicide over OROP turns into political slugfest

IN NEW DELHI Rahul and Kejriwal detained after visit to hospital, attack govt

A 70-year-old army veteran seeking uniform pensions for military personnel died on Wednesday after consuming poison, sparking an ugly political brawl that appeared set to reignite a debate over the Modi government’s controversial retiral policy for soldiers.

Chaotic scenes broke out outside the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital as police stopped top opposition politicians from meeting the family of the deceased Subedar Ram Kishan Grewal, who friends said had unsuccessfully tried to meet defence minister Manohar Parrikar before killing himself.

But Grewal’s death was soon overshadowed by political theatre, as Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia, and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia were detained by police for protesting outside the hospital.

Scenes of pandemonium broke out at Mandir Marg police station, forcing police to move Gandhi and Scindia around in a bus, first towards Parliament Street police station and then towards Connaught Place police station before being finally taken to the police station at Tilak Marg, followed for hours by a horde of supporters protesting against the police action. “A family that sacrificedforthenation,whathappened to them is wrong,” Gandhi told Congress vice-president inside a bus near New Delhi’s Tilak Marg police station. reporters.“Thegovernmentshould at least apologise to the family, say what happened to you was wrong.”

RAVI CHOUDHARY/HT