‘Army doesn’t want Agniveer scheme’

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said Wednesday the Agniveer military recruitment scheme will be scrapped and thrown in the dustbin if the INDIA bloc comes to power, as he slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “turning Hindustan ke jawan into labourers”.
In his first election meeting in Haryana for the Lok Sabha polls, Gandhi also attacked Modi over the issue of farmers. He claimed that the Modi government waived loans amounting to Rs 16 lakh crore for 22 “arabpatis (top industrialists)” but openly says it “won’t waive farmers’ debts as it will spoil them”. “We had brought the land acquisition bill to protect farmers and give them due compensation, but the Modi government scrapped it. They brought three black farm laws and farmers had to take to the streets,” the former Congress president said.
Slamming the BJP government over the Agniveer scheme, he said, “This is Modi’s scheme, not the Army’s scheme. The Army does not want it. This scheme has been framed by the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office).”
“When the INDIA bloc forms the government, we will chuck the Agniveer scheme in the dustbin, we will tear it up,” he said at the rally held in the Mahendragarh-Bhiwani Lok Sabha constituency.
India’s borders, Gandhi said, are secured by the youths of Haryana and the country. “There is patriotism in the DNA of our youth,” he said, adding, “Modi has converted Hindustan ke jawan into labourers.”
Sharpening his attack on the BJP government, the Congress leader said, “They say there will be two types of martyrs — normal jawans and officers who will get a pension, martyr status and facilities and those from poor families who have been named Agniveer. Agniveers will neither get martyr status nor pension or canteen facility.”
The Centre in 2022 rolled out the Agnipath recruitment scheme for short-term induction of personnel into the armed forces with an aim to bring down the age profile of the three services.