The BJP on Tuesday accused the Opposition of spreading misinformation especially with regard to the new armed forces recruitment scheme Agnipath and reports that caste and religion were being made the basis of recruitment, terming all such talk as ‘rumor-mongering’.
BJP national spokeperson Sambit Patra said that no such changes had been made in the recruitment forms, and the column for caste or religion was required to be filled "purely for administrative reasons" for the last few decades. He made the clarification after a tweet by Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, raising doubts over columns in the recruitment forms for the Agnipath scheme wherein caste and religion details were asked for.
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"In 2013, the Indian Army had submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that there is no role of caste as far as the selection process is concerned, however, there is a column for caste that is required to be filled during the recruitment process as it is an administrative or operative requirement." he said.
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He added that there was a requirement for the column of religion and caste “only if a soldier achieves martyrdom”. “It is a matter of sensitivity as to how the last rites will be conducted. Despite knowing this Sanjay Singh and other leaders are trying to spread misinformation,” he said.
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“The procedure is being followed since the British days and it has continued. The Modi government has not changed anything and wrong information is being spread in order to incite the youth. Arvind Kejriwal and other such politicians do all this to misguide people. We have full trust in the Indian Army. We have released statements for all those to clear the doubt against the Indian Army. There is no need to do politics over this issue,” said Mr. Patra.
