Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said the behaviour of war veterans protesting the notification on OROP scheme is "unlike that of a soldier" and they have been misguided even as he asked them not to link their decision to return medals to a financial demand.


He said he was "pained" to see such tactics being used. "Medals are given by the country for the service and gallantry acts that the soldiers have rendered. A section insisting on returning the medals because one is not happy with certain clauses of OROP, for which the government is paying over Rs 8,000 crore, is demeaning the medal itself," Parrikar said.


While noting that democracy gives everyone the right to protest, he urged the veterans not to return their medals which have been bestowed upon them by the country.


"These acts are not in line with the army discipline. It is hurting the basic ethos of the army," Parrikar said in Goa. He termed the one rank, one pension (OROP) decision as his biggest achievement in the last one year and said it was the BJP government that had finalised the measure.