‘Agniveer’ scheme brought to benefit business house: Rahul
Mohania: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday attacked the Narendra Modi government, alleging that it brought the ‘Agniveer’ scheme to spend the defence Budget for the benefit of a big business house, instead of for emoluments paid to the soldiers.
The former Congress president said, ‘This is because the Modi government does not want to spend the defence budget on salary and other perks of soldiers. It wants to spend the amount for the benefit of Adani.’
Gandhi has been levelling various charges against the Adani Group.
The corporate group, however, rejected them all.
Gandhi made the allegation at Mohania in Kaimur district of Bihar, bordering Uttar Pradesh, a region from where youngsters are known to enrol in the armed forces on a large scale and which was witness to extensive protests against the ‘Agniveer’ scheme two years ago.
‘An Agniveer will not get salary and pension on par with a regular army soldier nor will he get access to the canteen. Worse still, he will not be treated a martyr (in case of death on duty), even though he will be discharging his duties with the same passion as a regular jawan,’ Gandhi said.
The Congress leader said, ‘If you look at the coverage in the media, you find little mention of farmers and other people and opposition leaders like us. You will find Modi sharing space with his friends in the big businesses and also celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai.’
Sometimes Nitish Kumar can also be found beside the prime minister, he said, evoking peals of laughter from the crowd.
The remark was aimed at the Bihar chief minister who recently dumped the opposition bloc INDIA and returned to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition.
Gandhi further added, ‘Because of the policies of the Modi government, youngsters can no longer look for employment in the armed forces, railways or any other public sector unit.
The government in Delhi wants to reduce you all to the status of a contract labour who can be fired at will.’
