Chandigarh: “Zinda rahiyo, Rs 7,500 diya karunga (Stay alive till I come to power, I will give you Rs 7,500 old age pension),” Indian National Lok Dal Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala tells an elderly man in a video which went viral on WhatsApp groups Wednesday.
The video, shared by the INLD, appears to have been purportedly shot during Chautala’s ongoing Parivartan Padyatra (walk for change) across Haryana’s 90 assembly segments. The yatra is scheduled to culminate at Kurukshetra, where the party will be celebrating the birth anniversary of INLD founder and former deputy Prime Minister, Chaudhary Devi Lal, on 25 September.
Speaking to ThePrint on the viral video Abhay Chautala said, “This is nothing new. The INLD has been announcing its intention of providing Rs. 7,500 old age pension if voted to power in next year’s assembly election ever since I started the Parivartan Padyatra [from Mewat on 20 February].”
The INLD’s promise of old age pension was met with former Chief Minister and leader of opposition in the Haryana assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda reiterating his previous promise of Rs 6,000 monthly old age pension if his party comes to power, at a press conference held at his Chandigarh residence Wednesday.
The subject of old age pension has become something of an election issue in poll-bound Haryana, with leaders across party lines promising assistance to the elderly if voted to power.
Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) leader Dushyant Chautala, Abhay Chautala’s nephew, has been promising Rs. 5100 as old age pension. The JJP, a breakaway party of the INLD, is a partner in the current coalition government in the state, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The fact that the JJP had promised a monthly old age pension of Rs 5,1000 even ahead of the 2019 assembly polls has drawn criticism for the party. The BJP-JJP government in the state currently gives Rs 2,750 as old age pension (titled Old Age Samman Allowance), after a hike of Rs 250 was announced by CM Manohar Lal Khattar while presenting the 2023-2024 budget in February.
Dushyant Chautala has previously been quoted in news reports as saying that his party got only 10 seats in the previous election and that if the voters had ensured a single majority for JJP he would have been able to immediately announce the hike.
The old age pension scheme was reportedly started in Haryana by Devi Lal in 1987. With parties now using it as a poll plank for the coming 2024 assembly elections, each leader has been busy dismissing the other’s claims as “false promise”.
While Abhay Chautala said in conversation with ThePrint that it was his grandfather Devi Lal who had launched the scheme, and other members of his party and family had hiked the amount over the years when the party had been in power, Hooda questioned the intention of the JJP and INLD and Dushyant Chautala dismissed statements of both.
Also read: In Haryana, padyatras, campaigns, and a fight for Chaudhary Devi Lal’s legacy
When Lal saw an old friend’s plight
The amount offered by the Devi Lal government while launching the scheme in 1987 was reportedly Rs 100 per month. As a leader of the Lok Dal then, Lal had led an alliance government as CM.
In a report published in the Hindi media outlet Jagaran in 2018, former MP and an old Devi Lal associate, Inder Singh, had been quoted as saying that it was a visit to a friend in Jhajjar before 1987 which had prompted Lal to start the pension scheme.
“Tau (uncle) Devi Lal was visiting a former freedom fighter friend of his in Jhajjar. The friend’s granddaughter was about to leave for her in-law’s place and came to touch his feet for his blessings. The old man asked his children to bring him some money to give his granddaughter as shagun [a token of good luck] and also asked them to bring some tea for his guests. But a long time lapsed and neither the money, nor the tea was brought.”
This reportedly prompted Lal to start the old age pension scheme to ensure that the elderly are not at the mercy of others for their small monetary needs. Subsequent governments continued to increase the allowance.
Beneficiaries under the scheme must be 60 years or above, to be eligible for the pension. Also, an elderly couple’s joint monthly income has to be below Rs 2 lakh per annum to qualify for the scheme.
Those covered under any other government pension scheme are also not eligible for this benefit.
Of a total population of 25, 351, 462, according to the 2011 Census, 18,35,009 people in Haryana are getting old-age pension according to government data. Data also shows among the other social security pensions, 8,31,423 people get widow pension, and 1,92,026 get disability pension.
The allowance for these two categories is the same as the old-age pension, according to government figures.
The politics of pension
With parties vying with each other over the pension issue, Abhay Chautala told ThePrint Wednesday that it was his grandfather Devi Lal who had initiated the scheme in Haryana, and that his father Om Prakash Chautala had hiked the allowance when he had been in power in the state between 1999 and 2005, which the INLD will take forward if it comes to power in 2024.
Dismissing the promises of hiking the old age pension made by Hooda and Dushyant Chautala, Abhay Chautala said the former had been in power in the state between 2005 and 2014 and the pension was just Rs 1,000 per month at the time.
Abhay Chautala also pointed out that his nephew Dushyant Chautala had been deputy CM of the state since 2019. “If he had the intentions, nothing stops him from implementing his poll promise,” Abhay Chautala said.
Hooda on his part called the Chautala’s promises “an old habit of the Chautala clan of fooling people by making false promises and then forgetting these after coming to power.
He added: “If Dushyant Chautala is not able to implement his poll promises made in 2019, why doesn’t he resign from the government?”
The Congress leader also described the BJP-JJP alliance as one based on selfishness and not on principles and added that the Congress had announced Rs. 6,000 as old age pension two months back and that he had just reiterated his earlier announcement Wednesday.
Dushyant Chautala, meanwhile, said, “As far as the INLD leader’s promise is concerned [a reference to Abhay Chautala], I don’t consider it worthy of my comments, because people of Haryana have completely rejected him. Hooda should first explain what stopped him from giving a good amount of pension when he was in power from 2005 to 2014.”
He added: “At least our government has been gradually hiking the pension. But Hooda didn’t ever think of old aged people when he was in power.”
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: Demanding ‘justice’ for wrestlers, Haryana opposition on offensive against Khattar govt