Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said that the Centre will be forced to roll back the Agnipath recruitment scheme and the PM will have to apologise to the youth of the country.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday that the central government will be forced to roll back the Agnipath recruitment scheme, just like it had to revoke the farm laws following sustained protests by farmers.
Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi said the PM will have to apologise to the youth of the nation, for the second time after apologising to farmers last year when the three farm laws were withdrawn.
“For 8 consecutive years, the BJP government has insulted the values of ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’. I had said earlier also that the Prime Minister will have to withdraw the black Agriculture Act. In the same way, he will have to obey the youth of the country by becoming ‘Mafiveer’ and ‘Agnipath’ will have to be taken back,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.
The Gandhi scion’s statement comes against the backdrop of massive outrage and violent protests against the Agnipath recruitment by defence job aspirants.
Joining the chorus for the rollback of the Agnipath scheme, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged that the government does not understand the pain and frustration of the jobless youngsters, and instead of helping them, it is taking away aspirants’ hopes of recruitment, rank and pension.
Unveiling the scheme on Tuesday, the government said youths between the age of 17.5 and 21 years would be inducted for a four-year tenure into the armed forces, while 25 per cent of the recruits will be retained for regular service.
Those opposed to the scheme are concerned about the four-year tenure, which would be followed by compulsory retirement for most without gratuity and pension benefits.
The Centre has given assurances that the future of the Agnipatgh recruits is not insecure, and several BJP-ruled states including Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana have already announced that they will give priority to Agniveers in their state police recruitment.
