‘Modi govt playing with nt’l security by ‘imposing’ Agnipath scheme’

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday accused the Modi government of playing with national security by “imposing” the Agnipath scheme, and said the military recruitment programme would be scrapped when an INDIA bloc government is formed at the Centre to give justice to the patriotic youth of the country.

The Congress also said that the Agnipath scheme is a “national security threat” and it has shrunk the stream of recruitment which can compromise the country’s security for the next decade. “By imposing the Agniveer scheme, the Modi government has played with India’s national security. We have three questions, whose befitting reply the public will now give to BJP in the last phase of the elections,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X. “Is it not true that Agnipath has reduced the number of recruitments from 75,000 per year to 46,000 per year? Is it not true that the Defence Minister of the country has to repeatedly reiterate that he will reconsider the Agniveer scheme, make changes and improvements in it,” he asked.

“Is it not true that the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) and the Army are concerned about the continuing decline in induction of new soldiers which is set to reach its highest level by the end of this decade,” the Congress chief asked in his post. He said on one hand, the country’s borders are facing Chinese infiltration, occupation and encroachment, for which more military force is needed, on the other hand, the Modi government has “destroyed” the lives of our patriotic youth through the Agnipath scheme.