CHANDIGARH: Around six months after the government introduced Agnipath for recruitment to the armed forces, Rahul Gandhi persisted with his criticism of the scheme, accusing the BJP of labeling him “anti-Army.”The former Congress chief said that young aspiring Army candidates told him that their future was ruined.
Rahul was speaking at a rally on the first day of the second phase of his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Haryana. The yatra resumed from Sanoli-Panipat Road. “First make me understand what the Agnipath scheme is,” said Rahul, addressing a rally in Panipat.
“The energy of the state is going to waste. The BJP says its leaders are patriots. Make me understand their patriotism. When I raise the Agniveer issue, the BJP says I’m talking against defence forces,’’ he said, adding he had full respect for the country’s defence forces.
“When the youth said they did not like Agniveer, the government responded by telling them that if their faces were captured on camera, they would not get any government job. They were threatened not to come out. I have walked 3,000 km and such youth are meeting me. They are telling me that their future has been ruined,’’ he said, adding only 25% of the new recruits would get regular jobs after a gap of four years. “The rest will be left unemployed.”He also hit out at the BJP-led Haryana government over the state’s high unemployment rate as the state topped the CMIE unemployment data released recently.
Rahul criticised he BJP for questioning his yatra. “They ask why I am on this yatra. My answer is because they have spread fear and hatred across this country. “All that their policies have done through demonetisation and GST is spread fear and uncertainty, which they have converted into hatred,” he said. The purpose of the yatra, he said, was to unite the people of the country and against the rising unemployment and inflation.