Agnipath will create two Armies in country, says Hooda

CHANDIGARH

Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in Haryana Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Saturday said that Centre’s ‘Agnipath’ scheme for defence forces would create two types of Armies in the country- one permanent and one temporary.

He said the party would continue to oppose ‘Agnipath’ scheme and would hold a sit-in ‘dharna’ across the country on June 27. Addressing a press conference, Mr. Hooda said the ‘Agnipath’ scheme is neither in the interest of the country, nor in the interest of national security, the Army or the youth. “With this plan, there would be two types of armies in the country, one permanent and one temporary. It will be very difficult to establish coordination between them,” he said.

Mr. Hooda said that the Haryana government is misleading the youth of the State by promising permanent jobs to ‘Agniveers’, while the reality is that Haryana is facing the highest unemployment in the whole country, due to the ill-conceived policies of the BJP-JJP government.

“The government should reconsider it and withdraw the Agnipath scheme and start permanent recruitment. Had the recruitments been completed in the last three years, about 20,000 youths of Haryana would have been in the Army today,” he said.

Reacting to the results of civic polls, Mr. Hooda said that the urban voter has completely rejected the BJP-JJP. “The BJP got only 26% votes in these elections and three out of every four voters voted against BJP-JJP while independent candidates got double the votes of BJP. But the BJP-JJP has projected this defeat as a victory, trying to hide its frustrations,” he said.