The decision to end the old pension scheme was due to the neo-liberal policies, Which was accepted by the country almost unanimously. The continuation of those policies would be considered an anomaly to reverse a natural of theirs.
Just before the assembly elections in the states, there has been a flurry of promises from various opposition parties to bring back the old pension scheme for government employees. Perhaps behind this promise is the belief that government servants play an important role in influencing election results. Then it is also believed that if an employee is happy, then the vote of many relatives associated with him can get the vote of the party concerned. But this promise failed to win the Samajwadi Party and the Congress in the assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the same year. Yet the Congress governments in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have restored the old pension scheme and now in Gujarat the same promise has been made by both the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. But even there the chances of it being effective are slim. Because the number of government employees among many voters is small, but government departments themselves now have about a quarter of temporary employees, who do not get any social security.
However, there can be no argument that the rest of the society was deprived of such protections, while the retired life of some lucky people who got government jobs passed in peace. It is worth noting that the decision to end the old pension scheme in 2004 was due to the policies of neo-liberal bigotry, which the country accepted almost unanimously. It would now be considered an anomaly to pursue those policies in other areas and their natural consequences would be to reverse a decision. It would have been better if the political parties put their full assessment in front of the country on the basis of the experience of three decades of implementing these policies. But there is no indication that any party has the intellectual capacity and courage to do so. Meanwhile, making such a promise in an eagerness to win elections, the implementation of which will only create problems with these policies – shows the short-sightedness of these parties. We should remember that such promises or measures do not benefit the society.
