AAP MP Sanjay Singh on Wednesday, 22 June, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged him to "immediately" roll back the Agnipath military recruitment scheme, claiming that the country will face a "dreadful situation" if it is implemented.
Flagging a host of deficiencies in the scheme, Singh claimed that its implementation would "destroy" the basic structure and capability of the army with recruitment of soldiers and their deployment after merely six months of training.
"It is astonishing that the government is preparing to deploy crores of youths in front of the enemy's bayonets by providing them merely six months of training," the AAP MP said in his letter to the prime minister.
‘Agnipath Will Endanger Country’s Security’
The country's army today have such soldiers on the borders that no power in the world can compete with them because they underwent "one-and-a-half to two years" of rigorous and efficient training after their recruitment, Singh said.
"Without adequate training, what will our youth be able to do other than endangering their lives as well as the security and sovereignty of the country?" he asked.
He also urged the prime minister to think what would be the state of mind of the jawans to be recruited under the Agnipath scheme and deployed on the borders, asking will they have "the morale to give a befitting reply to the enemy" when they are worried every moment about their future after completion of four years of their service.
He also urged the prime minister to consider what will happen if a soldier, who is recruited under the scheme and trained in handling all types weapons, is misled by anti-national and criminal outfits after he returns home after completing four years of service and faces financial hardships while being unemployed.
"(If that happens) what a big challenge it can become for the internal security of the country and peace of the society. Certainly, efforts will be made by the anti-national and criminal outfits to mislead these young youths and use them against the country and society taking advantage of their financial hardships," Singh said.
‘Will Push Youth Into Despair’
The AAP MP said the implementation of the scheme will push crores of youths of the country into "the dark lane of despair and depression".
"In the coming years, this scheme will create such a dreadful situation in the country that perhaps the government and its machinery of that time will have to deploy all its energy in dealing with it," he added.
Singh termed the roll-out of the scheme "an outrageous move and a foolish decision" and accused the Narendra Modi-led government of going ahead with such a military recruitment plan just to make a claim through "this short-cut" that it provided jobs to lakhs of people in one stroke.
The AAP leader dubbed the rollout of the Agnipath scheme "petty political trickery" and urged the prime minister to "immediately withdraw this black scheme." He said India is caught in "the vicious cycle" of economic depression, inflation and unemployment as the Narendra Modi government has failed "miserably" in bringing the country's economy back on track due to its wrong policies.
"In such a situation, in some way you want to reduce the pension bill of the army. That is why you are deciding to do away with the pension of army personnel through Agnipath scheme," he charged in his letter to the prime minister.
"I would like to suggest to you that the thousands of crores which your government is spending every year on your image building, glorification and advertisement, if that expenditure is stopped, then the exchequer will get a lot of relief," he added.
(Edited for clarity.)
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