NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday termed regrettable and unfortunate the Maharashtra Sadan force-feeding incident and said the Centre was committed to safeguarding religious freedom of every citizen. While making a statement on the incident in the Rajya Sabha, he shared the details received from the Maharashtra Government.
Quoting the report, Rajnath said some Maharashtra MPs had on July 17 protested against the quality of food served at the New Maharashtra Sadan and demanded immediate discontinuation of services by the IRCTC.
“The MPs reportedly tried to feed Arshad Zubair, resident manager of the IRCTC, while complaining about the food quality,” he said.
The IRCTC, through a letter dated July 18, has terminated its agreement with the New Maharashtra Sadan.
Zubair, Rajnath said, hasn’t filed a police complaint. However, the resident Commissioner has written a letter to state Chief Secretary, informing him about the incident.
No to Compulsory Military Training
Dismissing calls for conscription, the Modi Government on Friday told the Lok Sabha that compulsory military training for the youth was ‘highly undesirable’ as it could militarise the nation and those trained may join the ranks of anti-social elements.
In a written reply to questions from members of the Lok Sabha, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said the Central Government was not in favour of making military training compulsory to all the youth in the country.
He also informed that there had been three Private Members’ Bills in Parliament in the last five years for making military training compulsory to the youths, but only one of these were still pending, while the other two lapses were removed from the agenda.
Jaitley said the nation’s constitution does not provide for the same and being a democratic republic, people are free to choose their professions.
“Compulsion in respect of military training, it is felt, would go against the democratic ethos,” he said.
“Also, military training to all the youth of the country may also lead to militarisation of an entire nation. It is highly undesirable, lest some of the unemployed youth trained in military skills join the ranks of the undesirable elements,” he said.
Moreover, training all the youth in the country would require establishment of a very large number of training centres, with the necessary wherewithal, all over the country and would involve huge expenditure in their maintenance and upkeep.