Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his comments on the grand old party on the ’25 year of Kargil Vijay Diwas’ accusing him of doing petty politics and said no Prime Minister has ever done this before.
Hitting back at the Prime Minister, he also urged the government to scrap the Agnipath scheme as it has been opposed by sever quarters.
In a post on X, while slamming the Prime Minister, Kharge, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said, “It is very unfortunate and deplorable that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji is doing petty politics even on occasions like paying tribute to martyrs on Kargil Vijay Diwas.”
“No Prime Minister has ever done this before,” he said.
Taking a swipe at the Prime Minister, the Congress chief said, “Modi ji is saying that his government implemented the Agnipath scheme at the behest of the Army, this is a blatant lie and an unforgivable insult to our valiant Armed Forces.”
Training his guns, he said, “Modi ji, it is you who are spreading lies!”
He said that former Army Chief (Retd.) General MM Naravane has said on record that 75 per cent of recruits were to be taken for permanency in the ‘Agnipath Scheme’ and 25 per cent of people were to be let go after four years.
“But the Modi government did the opposite, and forcibly implemented this scheme for all three Armed Forces,” he said.
He claimed that according to news reports, former Army Chief (Retd) General MM Naravane in his book which the Modi government, has stalled from being published, has also said, that the ‘Agnipath Scheme’ was shocking for the Army, and for the Navy and Air Force, it came like a “bolt out of the blue”.
“Are we creating professional soldiers, only by 6 months of training? Soldiers join the Army out of patriotism, not to earn a living,” he said.
Kharge also said that many retired officers have strongly criticised Agnipath and said that it is endangering National Security and the aspirations of the rural youth, demanding that this scheme should be completely scrapped.
“All this is on record,” he said, adding that Agniveers do not get any pension, no gratuity, no family pension, no liberalized family pension and no education allowance for their children.
“Modi ji, 15 Agniveers have been martyred so far. At least respect their martyrdom. There is a lot of anger and strong opposition among the youth of the country regarding Agniveer,” he said.
“Congress party’s demand is consistent-the Agnipath Scheme should be scrapped,” he added.
His remarks came after the Prime Minister on Friday teared into Congress.
He said that for decades, it was discussed how to make the Armed forces young. Aim of Agnipath is to make forces young and battle ready. Unfortunately, some are doing politics on this. Stop the sin of misleading our forces,” Mosi said .
Without naming anyone, PM Modi criticised those who have misled the public about the Agnipath scheme. He also recalled that these critics had previously made false promises about implementing the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme with a Rs 500-crore rupee.
The Prime Minister said some people used to think that the Army meant saluting politicians, doing parades.
“But for us, the Army means the faith of 140 crore countrymen. The goal of Agnipath is to make the Army young, to keep the Army continuously fit for war. Unfortunately, some people have made such a sensitive issue related to national security a subject of politics. These are the same people who weakened our Army by committing scams worth thousands of crores in the Army…,” Modi said.