Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) on Friday has demanded the central government to reconsider the controversial Agnipath scheme for recruitment into the Indian Army. His demand came on a day when thousands of young men from Telangana protested against the Centre at the Secunderabad Railway Station and indulged in violence.
“Center has taken this decision to deceive millions of youth looking for Army jobs while serving the country,” said KTR, in a statement. KTR said that without any consultation, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre has taken a unilateral decision on the Agnipath scheme.
Hitting out at the BJP-led government at the Centre, KTR stated that farmers weren’t consulted before introducing farm laws, traders weren’t consulted before bringing in the Goods and Services Tax (GST), citizens of the nation were neglected during demonetization, and minorities were ignored when the Citizenship Amendment Act was proposed.
Photos: Secunderabad railway station post-Agnipath protests
“The BJP Govt at the Centre has played with the lives of farmers with draconian farm laws and is now adversely affecting the soldiers with schemes like Agnipath,” said KTR. He added that the union government should take “complete responsibility” for the protests taking place across the nation.
KTR mentioned that the agitations across the country against this controversial scheme show how ‘”intense the unemployment problem” in India is. “BJP at the center is trying to privatize the military of the country which shows their inefficiency in governance,” he alleged.
The Telangana IT minister stated that 75% of the youth who join the army through the Agnipath scheme will become unemployed at the end of the fourth year, as per the scheme. “What would happen to the youth who finish a four-year career in the army and come out?” KTR asked, saying that even senior officials who served the army for many years were not provided sufficient employment.
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This scheme will majorly affect the youth coming from rural areas who aspire to join the army and serve the nation, KTR said. “This controversial scheme will disturb the organizational culture, traditions, and values that have kept the Indian Army at the highest pedestal for decades,” he added.
The Telangana IT minister stated that the Centre is “negatively affecting” the spirit of the armed forces by taking such decisions at a time when India’s neighboring countries are “posing a threat to the security of the country”.
KTR conveyed his condolences to the youth who died in the protests at the Secunderabad Railway station today. He said that the BJP government should take complete responsibility for this death. The young man was shot dead by the police, which was trying to bring the situation under control, after the angry protesters damaged vehicles, burnt train bogeys and also destroyed retail kiosks in the station.
