Congress leader Sachin Pilot alleged that the Modi government has “weakened” the Indian Army.
In a major poll planks, the Opposition Congress on Monday promised to scrap the Agnipath scheme and reintroduce the old recruitment system in the Army if elected to power. The announcement was made shortly after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to President Droupadi Murmu expressing concerns about the controversial recruitment scheme in the Indian Army.
Addressing a press conference on the issue, Congress leader Sachin Pilot said, “Our defence expenditure is increasing…it was recently said that we are earning a lot of money through defence exports…that we are becoming independent and doing indigenous manufacturing. If our defence department is generating so much income, and we are becoming so capable, then the most important thing would be to make resources available for the jobs, recruitment, and families of our brave soldiers available.”
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The Congress leader accused the BJP of weakening the Army and asked why the government is messing around with the Army to save money if it can spend thousands of crores on Prime Minister’s plane, advertisements.
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Congress leader Pawan Khera, who accompanied Pilot at the press briefing, accused the Modi government of insulting “Jawan and Kisan” of the country.
“Today both soldiers and farmers are troubled in the country. There was a Prime Minister in the country who used to give the slogan of Jai Jawan-Jai Kisan. Now there is another Prime Minister Narendra Modi… who is insulting both farmers and soldiers,” Khera said.
Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda, who also present during the presser, said that there was no demand of the “Agnipath” scheme from Army, the youth or any other political party.
Highlighting the alleged reduction in Army recruitment from 60-65,000 to just 45,000 per year, Hooda claimed the strength of Indian Army is likely to decrease from 1.4 million to 8,00,000 in the next 10 years.
“If the recruitment numbers continue to fall at this rate, our army of 1.4 million will reduce to 800,000 within 10 years,” he said.
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