Maharashtra Government’s decision to offer special pension to those who were jailed during Emergency between 1974-77, has not gone down well with all the beneficiaries. Just days after Relief and Rehabilitation minister Chandrakant Patil declared that Rs 10,000 would be paid to those who were behind bars for over a month and Rs 5,000 who spent less than a month in jail during Emergency, many activists entitled to the pension, declined it.
I politely declined to accept the offer of pension because this struggle against emergency took place 43 years ago. 70 percent of the people who were in jail, whether they actually struggled or not against the emergency have already passed away. It doesn’t make much sense to offer pension to survivors. People like me had done this looking at some ideals & principles which we wanted to uphold.Amarendra Dhaneshwar, activist