NEW DELHI: Opposition MPs on Friday walked out of a meeting of the Parliament Standing Committee on Defence alleging they were not allowed to raise issues related to the Agnipath recruitment scheme and the India-China border standoff.
Congress MPs K C Venugopal and Uttam Kumar Reddy and BSP MP Danish Ali walked out after Standing Committee chairman Jual Oram said that matters not listed in the agenda cannot be discussed.
Venugopal said that the MPs walked out in protest from Friday’s meeting of Parliament Standing Committee on Defence for not taking up the controversial Agnipath scheme despite their repeated requests and a letter addressed to the chairman requesting the same.
“We urged the chairman to clarify; why the Parliament Standing Committee on Defence was kept in dark on the Agnipath recruitment scheme? Why the scheme was not taken up in the committee’s budget scrutiny meetings despite involving financial implications? The chairman turned a deaf ear to these crucial questions & the scheme was not discussed. No discussion in Parliament, no deliberations in the Parliament Standing Committees, thus goes the way of bulldozing legislations in the Modi era,”
he tweeted.
Oram had reportedly said that anything outside the agenda of the meeting would not be discussed.
The members told the chairman that not allowing a discussion on Agnipath amounted to insulting the Parliament and not informing the committee about the scheme is a breach of privilege and their request to list the matter in the next meeting was also turned down.
Another MP, who is a member of the committee, said that they also demanded that the committee should be briefed about India-China border issues and why the committee has been denied permission to visit Kashmir.
The Agnipath scheme had sparked protests across the country.
It allows a four-year tour of duty, after which 25 per cent of personnel would be absorbed into the force based on their performance.