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.
