BJP lists Congress ‘false’ promise as Mallikarjun Kharge equates UPS to ‘U-turn’

New Delhi, August 25

A day after the government unveiled a new assured pension scheme, eschewing the National Pension Scheme that had no assured pension element, the ruling BJP and opposition Congress accused each other of doing U-turn on the issue concerning 23 lakh Central Government employees.

• Editorial: New pension scheme

Hours after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge took to X to say that the ‘U’ in the UPS (Unified Pension Scheme) stood for Modi government’s U-turns, BJP veteran Ravi Shankar Prasad asked the opposition leader why his party’s governments in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana did a U-turn on the restoration of the old pension scheme (OPS).

“The Congress had whipped up a storm around the OPS issue and made tall promises about its restoration ahead of Assembly elections in HP, Karnataka and Telangana. We want to ask Rahul Gandhi why the Congress governments in these states have not restored OPS?” said Prasad.

Hailing PM Narendra Modi for approving the UPS following extensive consultations through a panel, the BJP asked why the Congress, “habituated to making lofty announcements without following them through”, dialled down on the OPS issue to the extent that the promise was dropped from its 2024 Lok Sabha poll manifesto.

“In Himachal, the Congress promised OPS but never implemented. In Karnataka, it played smart by saying pension benefits will go only to pre-2006 retirees who are just 13,000 in number. In Telangana, there was a weak mention of it. Eventually, the Congress became so wary of the palpable falsehood of its assurance about pension that it could not muster the courage to make it part of its manifesto in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” said Prasad, noting that the UPS was a fully government-funded plan with no carry forward of financial liabilities to future governments.

“The ‘U’ in the UPS stands for Modi government’s U-turns! After June 4, the power of people prevailed over the arrogance of power of the Prime Minister,” Kharge earlier said. He listed a string of retractions by the Centre, which include rollback in the Budget regarding long-term capital gain tax andindexation; sending Waqf Amendment Bill to a joint parliamentary committee, further consultations on Broadcast Bill and withdrawal of the lateral entry plan. “We will keep ensuring accountability and protect 140 crore Indians from this despotic government!” said Kharge.

Prasad hit back saying that the BJP government did not make decisions with one or two elections on mind. “Rahul Gandhi practises chit politics. He reads chits he is given, be it on Hindenburg, Rafale, Constitution or now on caste census. But let me tell him that governing India is a serious business which demands well thought out decisions, and not ad hocism,” added Prasad.

Maha 1st state to approve scheme

• Maharashtra on Sunday became the first state to approve the rollout of Unified Pension Scheme retrospectively from March 2024
• The ruling BJP and Shiv Sena moved quickly to woo govt staffers on Assembly poll eve; other BJP-ruled states are also expected to follow suit