Street Agni test for Agnipath
Pix By Special arrangement
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, June 16: Two days after the Narendra Modi-led government’s announcement of the Agnipath scheme for recruiting 46,000 personnel in the Armed forces, the youth hit the street in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh while they blocked train services at several places besides setting a few bogeys on fire too.
The Railways has confirmed that the incidents of putting the train bogeys have been reported from parts of Bihar where a number of passenger trains have also been stopped. The protests have by afternoon on Thursday spread to other states, including Haryana, which again is home to a large number of ex-service men and serving personnel.
The agitating youth in UP also hit the street against the Agnipath scheme, calling for the Armed forces to start recruitment in earlier ways. For the youth of UP, Bihar and adjoining states, the Armed forces have been the mainstay for regular employments while the government jobs dried up over the years.
The youth on their own hit the street while the opposition parties were busy elsewhere to apply their minds to the Agnipath scheme and the mainstream media gave benefit of the doubts to the initiative.
On Thursday, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge after the youth took to the street said that the government will have to take back the scheme.
“Tour of duty is yet another bizarre experiment which has forced unemployed youth to protest across the country. But the BJP government remains unconcerned by their plight and desperation. Youth and the Opposition will ensure the Modi government does a U-turn on this scheme as well,” tweeted Kharge.
Kharge’s ‘youth and the Opposition’ words were honest for the order of the sequence. Indeed, the youth have taken the leads in giving the cues to the Opposition, which had been busy with protest against the appearance of Rahul Gandhi before the Enforcement Directorate and the preparations for the Presidential elections.
The Modi government was well aware that the Agnipath scheme will face backlash from the youth despite all the sugar-coating, which included assurances from the Ministry of Home Affairs for the preference in the recruitment in the paramilitary forces, the Ministry of Education coming out with an announcement that such Agniveers will be able to do a special graduation course.
But the loud question remained, why the government was bringing ‘Theka’ to the military.
The contractual employment and the government’s contempt for enforcing even the basic minimum labour regulations in the country has turned the contractual employments into the instruments of slavery at work places.
The Agnipath scheme for Agniveers sound filmier than a serious application of mind to address the issues of the military forces to gain agility and youth and edge in the mountain warfare while facing two nuclear-armed foes on the borders.
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