Left Democratic Youth Front (LDYF), a coalition of youth organisations affiliated to the Left Democratic Front (LDF), will organise a Statewide protest against the Agnipath scheme for recruiting soldiers into the armed forces on June 29.
Youth, students, and armed forces aspirants will take part in a mass rally to Raj Bhavan and central government institutions at district centres. The agitation is organised to pledge solidarity with a Parliament march to be held on the same day, leaders of various organisations said at a press conference here on Sunday.
Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) State president V. Vineeth said a get-together of retired soldiers, aspirants, and socio-cultural leaders would be organised in Ernakulam on July 2. Similar programmes would be organised at the panchayat level. Youth squads would also conduct door-to-door visits to sensitise the public against the Agnipath scheme.
Calling the Central scheme ‘anti-youth’, he said no recruitment had been made to the armed forces for two years. Nearly 5,000 aspirants who had cleared the fitness test conducted in Thiruvananthapuram awaited the written examination. The move was intended to saffronise and thereby weaken the armed forces, he alleged.
The youth leaders also accused the Congress of unleashing violence in the State to disrupt law and order. The attack on the Deshabhimani office at Kalpetta and various CPI(M) offices were intended to trigger riots, they alleged
DYFI State president V. Vaseef, All India Youth Federation State president N. Arun, secretary T.T. Jismon and representatives of Youth Front (M), Youth Congress (S), Yuva Janata Dal (S), Kerala Youth Front (B), and National Youth League participated.
