SHILLONG, JUNE 24: Meghalaya Pradesh Youth Congress (MPYC) on Thursday accused the BJP-led government at the Centre for trying to politicize the defence forces through the introduction of the Agneepath scheme.
“We the Indian Youth Congress, strongly condemn the way the scheme is being introduced with no consideration whatsoever to the plight of the aspirants whose efforts have been belittled to a very large extent by the irresponsible state mechanism in its efforts of politicizing the entire defence force,” MPYC vice president Banphira Lang Basaiawmoit said in a statement.
“We stand with the youths and the public at large to show our solidarity in this hour of chaos and arm twisting by the central government,” he said.
He said the Agneepath scheme is nothing but a condescending approach by the Government of India to solve short term unemployment problem in the country and is meant only to put the country’s trajectory in a downward spiral not long from now.
“The scheme has been forced upon the throats of young people without any consideration for the existing aspirants who have appeared for exams and pre-medical tests as per the recruitment procedure in the defence sector,” he said.
Basaiawmoit further stated that Meghalaya has many such aspirants whose efforts have gone in vain for no fault of theirs and everything has been cancelled to make way for this ill-conceived and haphazard scheme.
“The Agneepath Scheme has proved to be the biggest thorn that pricks the aspirations and dreams of every Indian youth who wants to serve the country by joining the Indian Armed Forces,” he said.
Stating that the youths selected under the Agneepath scheme will be categorised as Agniveers, Basaiawmoit said, “The contractual job for four years raises more questions than answers; what will become of the majority of the Agniveers after the four years of service? Youths are forced to compulsory retirement.”
This scheme does not ensure any benefits or assurances to the youths after the four years of service, he added.
In addition, the MPYC vice president said that with the ongoing security threat along India’s borders – both at the LAC and LOC – this does not seem to be a feasible period to experiment with an untried and radical system of recruitment without having conducted pilot test before the wide implementation in the armed forces.
