Congress has demanded a rollback of the Agnipath scheme and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his silence and stop playing with the lives of youngsters.
Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Rajya Sabha MP Nasir Hussain, TPCC president Revanth Reddy, and TPCC Campaign Committee chairman Madhu Yaskhi Goud said that the country’s security would be at great risk if the Agnipath scheme was implemented. The government must withdraw this ‘Tughlaqui’ decision, they said.
Mr. Hussain, who was here as part of the party’s nationwide programme “Agnipath ki baat: Yuvaon se vishwasghaat” to highlight the issue, said that the Congress would stand with the country’s youth. “We will fight for you in Parliament and also in the streets. Protest peacefully and the Congress will back you on your just demands,” he said.
He also said that Mr. Modi has to be sensitive to the sentiments of youngsters and the country and such schemes could not be just bulldozed on the nation. He said only serving officers, who were bound by norms, were supporting the scheme while ex-servicemen and defence experts were against it, given the sensitivities related to the Army culture. “Such senseless decisions will only make the aspirants more militant,” he warned.
Stating that creating a temporary Army can be harmful to the nation, he said that the trial and error method will end up destroying the nation when neighbouring countries were repeatedly adopting an aggressive posture. “This is the time when the country needs to strengthen defence forces and not weaken it,” he said.
Mr. Hussain also rejected the claims of Mr. Modi that the 75% recruited, who would be shunted out, will have better opportunities outside. “This is ridiculous,” he said, revealing that as of now 5.70 lakh ex-servicemen had applied for jobs but only 15,000 were accommodated. “So, it is just misleading the nation,” he said.
Mr. Revanth Reddy said that the government was spreading lies on Army men and said those securing the borders are the Border Security Force (BSF) while Army men are used only during wars. “They get trained all the time for war and other eventualities. With just four years of assured service, how can they be expected to be trained with conviction?” he asked.
Mr. Reddy said comparing India with Israel was ridiculous as it was a small nation and everyone is forcefully trained. Even in USA, there are better opportunities outside when they finish their short service commission, he said.
Mr. Madhu Yaskhi demanded the CM to reveal his opinion on such a major issue. “It was unfortunate that TRS that used the death of a protester for political benefit has deserted the protestors in jails,” he said.
