Congress ups ante on Agnipath scheme, demands white paper from Modi govt

NEW DELHI: Congress has accused Defence Minister Rajnath Singh of telling half-truths in the Lok Sabha after Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi raised the issue of the plight of Agniveers.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here today, the Chairman of the Ex-Servicemen Department in the AICC Col (Retd) Rohit Chaudhary and Wing Commander (Retd) Anuma Acharya demanded that the government should bring in a whitepaper about the Agnipath scheme.

The party reiterated its stand to scrap the Agnipath scheme, since it was against the security interests of the county, besides creating differences and discrimination between the soldiers within the defence services.

Referring to Rajnath Singh’s intervention in the parliament claiming that those Agniveers who die in the line of duty are paid Rs one crore, Col Rohit Chaudhary said, he (Singh) did not give the complete picture.

He said an Agniveer, if he gets killed in the line of duty gets Rs 48 lakhs from the insurance, Rs 44 lakhs as ex-gratia, and Rs 8 lakh for battle casualty. But, he added, Singh did not inform the house what an Agniveer soldier is not getting compared to the regular soldiers. The difference is huge which has created class within class within the soldiers and martyrs due to different compensation mechanisms applicable to Agniveers and Regular soldiers.

Col Rohit disclosed that a regular soldier gets about Rs 2.43 crores equalized up to 15 years of service in the rank of Sepoy and about Rs 3.25 crores for Havaldars whose service tenure is up to 24 years.

Besides, he added, if an Agniveer gets killed on day one of his service, his family besides Rs one crore, gets a salary for four years only and nothing more. Compared to that, a regular soldier’s family gets about Rs 2.4 crores, a full salary for 15 years, and a family pension after that. Plus, the family gets all the benefits like healthcare, canteen facility, educational benefits, scholarships, job reservations and much more.

He said the Agniveers are not granted martyrdom status and benefits associated with that are also deprived to them & their families. He said there are certain benefits entitled to Agniveers are also denied to Agniveers.

Col Rohit Chaudhary disclosed that there was a decline in recruitment in the defence services after the introduction of the Agnipath scheme, saying during the last four years, there was a shortfall of 3 lakh soldiers.

He also referred to the operational shortcomings that have been induced due to the Agnipath scheme, saying it does not produce battle-hardened soldiers as they are trained for a short duration of six months only.

Speaking on the occasion, Wing Commander (Retd) Anuma Acharya condemned the misuse of the social media handles of the defence services for spreading disinformation by the government.

Referring to the Defence Minister’s claim that the Agnipath scheme was introduced after consultations with about 158 organizations, she said, he must come out with details as such schemes are not discussed in public.

She asked, if the families of the Short Service Commission officers are entitled to various post-retirement benefits, why not the families of the Agniveers?