'Agnipath' in Congress over Agnipath scheme

New Delhi, Jun 30: The Congress has distanced itself from party MP Manish Tewari over his article that pitched the central government’s ‘Agnipath’ recruitment scheme as a part of defense sector reforms, which is a direct contradiction to the party’s official line of opposing the initiative.'

 

 

 

On Wednesday, the Congress party’s communication head Jairam Ramesh took to Twitter to oppose Tewari’s stand and said “Manish Tewari, INC MP, has written an article on Agnipath. While Congress is the only democratic party, it must be said his views are entirely his own & not of the party, which firmly believes Agnipath is anti-national security & anti-youth, bulldozed through without discussion.”

 

 

 

Tewari, however, quickly pointed out that “The tag line of the article does say - The views are personal. I wish Jairam Ramesh Ji would have read it right until the end.” This is the party's second official counter to Tewari’s stand on the new recruitment model. Earlier this month, Congress spokespersons distanced themselves from Tewari’s tweet supporting the scheme when it was announced. On June 16, Tewari lent his support to ‘Agnipath’ for the first time, soon after the government announced the new recruitment model. “I do empathize with youth who have concerns over Agnipath Recruitment Process. The reality is India needs a younger armed force with lighter human footprint savvy in technology and equipped with state of art weaponry. Armed forces of Union shouldn’t be an employment guarantee program,” he said. His position invoked a sharp response from his party colleague and Odisha MP Saptagiri Alaska, who said, “With due respect instead of Congress’ Manish Tewari mention in the tweet below just Manish Tewari would have sufficed in this context. Clearly, our stand on #AgnipathScheme is different & has already been communicated by people responsible.”

 

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Tewari rebutted and said, “Dear Saptapadi Ji. You are a valued colleague in Lok Sabha. However May I respectfully point out that when you may have been running around in your knickers my dear friend I was actively working for congress. I would request you to refrain from these snide tweets kindly.”