NEW DELHI: Violent protests broke out in nine states against the Centre’s Agnipath short-term recruitment scheme for the armed forces, putting the government on the backfoot. With the Opposition, too, stepping up the heat, the government responded by empowering Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to make changes to the scheme as required at his level without seeking the Cabinet’s concurrence.
Protesters set trains on fire and disrupted rail and road traffic, smashed window panes of buses and pelted stones in Bihar, Haryana, UP, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu. There were protests at Delhi’s Nangloi railway station as aspirants stopped trains and demanded a rollback of the new policy. At least 34 trains were cancelled and eight others were partially cancelled due to the protests.
Besides 72 trains were running late due to the agitation. Bihar was the worst affected with protesters resorting to arson at several places in as many as 11 districts, including Chhapra, Ara, Siwan, Gopalganj, Ara, Jehanabad, Saharsa and Nawada. National highways were blocked in Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Buxar, Arwal and East Champaran districts. In Saran and Kaimur, train bogies and an engine were torched.
BJP MLA Aruna Devi had to face the protestors’ wrath in Nawada when she was on her way to the district headquarters in her vehicle. The driver was thrashed and windowpanes of her car smashed by the protesters. The Patna- Ranchi-Jansatabdi Express, Kashi-Patna Jansatabdi Express, Lok Manya Tilak-Kamakhya Express were among the trains that remained stranded at different locations due to violent protests. In Haryana, hundreds of people blocked roads in Gurugram, Rewari, Palwal.
Stone-pelting crowds damaged a police vehicle in Palwal and Agra Chowk on National Highway-19 was blocked for several hours. In Madhya Pradesh, youth hailing from Bhind, Morena, Gwalior and adjoining districts of Gwalior-Chambal region, which sends a large number of recruits into the Army, went on the rampage for around 4-5 hours in Gole ka Mandir area of Gwalior.
The Birla Nagar railway station located on the Delhi-Gwalior-Bhopal rail section saw major violence as the mob damaged property all around, including the office of the station manager. As protests spread across at least 10 districts of UP, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath urged the youth not to be misguided and use the opportunity to serve “Mother India”.
First amendment
The government introduced a one-time waiver later in the day to increase the age cap to 23 years from 21 years for recruitment under the Agnipath scheme this year since there was no hiring during the last two years