The Congress on Saturday announced a mega public outreach imitative coinciding with Prime Minister’s monthly radio programme, Mann ki Baat, scheduled for Sunday.
The party had dubbed its imitative as “Agnipath Ki Baat, Yuvaon Ke Saath Vishwasghath’.
The party would hold simultaneous Press conferences at 20 top cities. The pressers would be addressed by party spokespersons, including former Union Ministers Ajay Maken, MM Pallam Raju, Manvendra Singh amongst others like Pawan Khera and Kanhaiya Kumar.
The party had earlier said it will be doing a satyagraha on June 27 over the same issue. It said the Agnipath scheme will create two categories of soldiers, which will impact the cohesion of combat units and accused the Narendra Modi government of playing around with national security.
Former Lok Sabha member Lt. Col. (Retd) Manvendra Singh said, having soldiers with different privileges fighting in the same unit could be a potentially “dangerous” situation.
“When there is difference of status, difference in pay, perks, allowances between two soldiers doing the same duties, it is a very dangerous situation and sure shot disaster,” Manvendra said at AICC press conference.
Congress has alleged the biggest impact would be on the scale of recruitment in terms of sheer numbers and the principle of regional balance that was usually followed by the armed forces in national interest.
The grand old party also questioned the effectiveness as well as motivation of a combat soldier with just a six-month training.
“Has the government given any thought to the risks of releasing a large number of trained military personnel into an environment of scarce jobs and temptations from criminal quarters, or worse?” asked the Congress.
The party has also strongly countered the government’s assertion that Agniveers would be absorbed in Central armed police forces (CAPF), Coast Guards, public sector undertakings (PSUs) and Assam Rifles, among others, with current data on re-employment.
The party said that according to 2021 Ministry of Defence data, ex-servicemen were entitled to 10% of Group C and 20% of Group D jobs in the Central government, but the actual numbers were 1.29% and 1.66%. The CAPF had a 10% quota, but ex-servicemen accounted for 0.47% in Group C, 0.87% in Group B and 2.20% in Group A posts, said a Congress statement and pointed to an identical situation for Central PSUs.