The Congress on Wednesday launched a three-phase Jai Jawan campaign to provide “justice” to 150,000 youth who were selected for the armed forces but were not inducted after the launch of the Agnipath scheme.
Former party chief Rahul Gandhi launched the campaign on the eighteenth day of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, that is currently passing through West Bengal, and promised affected youth that he would raise this “injustice” at every forum.
Around 1.5 lakh candidates selected for the Indian Army, Air Force and Navy between 2019 and 2022 were allegedly denied entry after the Agnipath scheme began.
“Our Jai Jawan campaign is dedicated to the youth who are facing this injustice,” Mr. Gandhi said, adding that “it is a fight for nyay (justice) against this anyay (injustice)“.
Mass contact
There will be three phases in the ‘Jai Jawan’ campaign — mass contact between February 1 and 28, then satyagraha (March 5-10) at martyrs’ memorials across the country and the final phase will be padayatra between March 17 and 20.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, media and publicity department head Pawan Khera, chairman of the ex-servicemen cell Col Rohit Chaudhry (retd), Indian Youth Congress president Srinivas BV and NSUI president Varun Chaudhary said the Angipath scheme was not only against the country’s interests but affected the future of lakhs of aspirants.
Mr. Khera said there is no job guarantee for Aginveers. In all 60 lakh youth took various tests for selection and 1.5 lakh were selected.
“The government charged ₹100 crore as examination fee for these selection tests. It’s time to ask Pradhan Mantri ji, what happened to this amount? Has also it been spent on some event?,” Mr. Khera said.
Mr. Srinivas said if the Congress comes to power, the new recruitment scheme would be scrapped. Though the Jai Jawan campaign seeks to find a way out for the 1.5 lakh affected youth, the move is also aimed at making Agnipath a poll issue in north Indian States like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where a large number of youth seek armed forces jobs.
