Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said it is the BJP’s responsibility to ensure jobs for Agniveers from Haryana.
Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said it is the BJP’s responsibility to ensure jobs for Agniveers from Haryana, who are not retained after their four-year tenure in the armed forces under the Agnipath scheme, as he hit out at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for “playing politics” over the short-term military recruitment plan.
Addressing a rally in Loharu in Bhiwani district of Haryana, which goes to the polls on October 5, Shah accused the Congress of spreading fake narratives.
“They claimed that Agniveer soldiers would have neither work nor pensions. But I want to tell you that under the Agniveer scheme, soldiers are receiving 20% reservations in police services… If any Agniveer returns, he will not be without a job and the BJP takes responsibility for this,” he said.
Targeting Gandhi, Shah said: “The Congress, especially Rahul ‘Baba’, is playing politics. I want to tell Haryana’s youth that ‘Hooda and company’, whose job is to spread lies, are saying what will happen to Agniveers later.. .but what I say, I do it.” He was referring to former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
The Agnipath scheme was introduced by the central government on June 14, 2022 for short-term induction of personnel in the armed forces. It seeks to recruit soldiers for only four years, with a provision to retain 25% of them in regular service. Those recruited under the new scheme are called Agniveers.
The government said replacing the legacy system would lower the age profile of the armed forces, ensure a fitter military and create a technically skilled war fighting force capable of meeting future challenges. But the decision sparked widespread protests and forced a concerted outreach by the government to scotch apprehensions about the scheme.