With the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls now entering the decisive phase, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday sought to reach out to the ex-servicemen as well as the peasants saying that the grand old party was committed to the welfare of the two sections.
Addressing a gathering of ex-servicemen here, which lauded the Congress scion for putting pressure on the Centre for the ‘One Rank One Pension scheme’, Rahul said he would always be around to help them out whenever the need arose.
“Whenever you (soldiers) need me, whether for small or big work, I will be around. Whatever help I can offer I will do it,” he said.
According to the young leader, although he could make big promises he would rather tell them that the results of the good work carried out by the UPA would be seen in the next couple of years.
Referring to the Centre’s decision to allow the ‘One Rank One Pension’ scheme, Rahul disclosed that the full credit for it should go to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi. “My contribution to ‘One Rank One Pension’ scheme is little,” he said.
The Congress vice-president, though, conceded that the decision should have been taken some 25 years ago, but now that it has been taken some 25 lakh soldiers and their kin will benefit from it. The ex-servicemen, on their part, urged Rahul to get the ‘One Rank One Pension’ scheme notified before the EC’s Model Code of Conduct came into force. And they demanded that the scheme should be implemented before June 30 and all arrears must be cleared before September 30.
Rahul lashed out at the BJP for taking credit for it and dividing the people as “insiders and outsiders”.