'Election slogan': Congress on Rajnath Singh's 'ready to rectify Agnipath scheme' remarks
New Delhi, Mar 28: The Congress on Thursday termed as "election slogan" Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's remarks that the government was ready to rectify if there were any drawbacks in the Agnipath scheme, and asserted that the programme will "most definitely" be changed when the INDIA bloc "comes to power" in early June.
During a fireside chat on the concluding day of the Times Now Summit here, the defence minister defended the military recruitment scheme, saying recruiting youths would result in an increased risk-taking spirit and more tech-savvy armed forces.
"...If we see any drawbacks, then we are ready to rectify them," Singh said while talking of the Agnipath scheme.
Reacting to the Singh's remarks, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X, "The Defense Minister of the country has (with condition) said that he is ready to make improvements and changes in the Agniveer scheme. This shows that the Agniveer scheme imposed on millions of patriotic youth by the Modi government is no longer working."
First the Modi government played with the future of lakhs of the youth, now because of the elections it has talked about accepting the flaws in the Agnipath scheme, Kharge said.
He said the government should first apologise to the country's patriotic youth.
The Congress has promised that its government will stop the Agnipath scheme, he asserted.
"Agnipath Yojana has weakened our national security. Now no youth wants to join the army only for four years," he said.
The Congress has highlighted the plight of around 1.5 lakh young men and women by launching the "Jai Jawan" campaign, Kharge said.
These youth were selected in a regular recruitment drive between 2019 and 2022 after passing the rigorous selection process but the Modi government suddenly imposed Agnipath scheme on the military forces, he said.
"The future Agniveers would be extremely dissatisfied and directionless due to loss of reputation and financial security due to this recruitment scheme," Kharge said.
"Recently, former Army Chief (retired) General MM Naravane had stated that under 'Agniveer Yojana', 75% people were to be taken and 25% people were to be released. But the Modi government did the opposite, and forcibly implemented this plan on all three military forces," he claimed.
"The awakened youth of the country will completely reject the election slogans of BJP! BJP is responsible for making their future bleak," Kharge alleged.
Tagging a media report on Singh's remarks, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "It will most definitely be changed when INDIA comes to power in early June 2024."
In June 2022, the Centre rolled out the Agnipath scheme for short-term induction of personnel into the armed forces with an aim to bring down the age profile of the three services.
The scheme provides for recruiting youngsters in the age bracket of 17 years and a half to 21 years for a four-year period with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years.
देश के रक्षा मंत्री ने (बशर्त) कहा है कि वो अग्निवीर योजना में सुधार व बदलाव करने के लिए तैयार है।
— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) March 28, 2024
इससे पता चलता है कि मोदी सरकार द्वारा लाखों देशभक्त युवाओं पर थोपी अग्निवीर योजना अब काम नहीं कर रही है।
पहले तो मोदी सरकार ने हमारे लाखों युवाओं के भविष्य से खिलवाड़ क़िया, अब… pic.twitter.com/S9hB5q4Fvn
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Siddaramaiah holds dharna protesting Centre's 'injustice' in release of drought relief to Karnataka
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his deputy D K Shivakumar along with several ministers and legislators on Sunday staged a dharna here, alleging injustice done to the state by the union government while releasing the drought relief funds.
Holding 'Chombu', the round water pot symbolising emptiness and deception, the leaders charged the Centre with "cheating" Karnataka by not releasing adequate relief to face acute drought, the kind of which was not witnessed in the past several decades.
They held the symbolic dharna in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the premises of "Vidhana Soudha", which houses the Legislature and Secretariat.
The state government has declared 226 out of the total 236 Taluks in Karnataka as drought-hit and said there was a crop loss in 48 lakh hectares of land.
According to Siddaramaiah, against the demand for Rs 18,171 crore for drought relief, the union government ordered release of only Rs 3,454 crore, that too after the state approached the Supreme Court.
The amount was not even a quarter of the state's demand, he noted.
#WATCH | Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, Congress MP and general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala along with several other leaders stage a protest against the central government over the release of more funds for drought relief, at Mahatma Gandhi Statue in… pic.twitter.com/cppcWpkohm
— ANI (@ANI) April 28, 2024
