Senior Congress leaders and MPs stage 'Satyagraha' in protest against Agnipath

CWC members, lawmakers, General Secretaries and other leaders were present at the protest in Jantar Mantar demanding the scheme's rollback

Senior Congress leaders and MPs on Sunday sat on a 'Satyagraha' here in solidarity with youths protesting against the controversial 'Agnipath' scheme of contractual hiring in the military with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra urging people to recognise "fake nationalists".

Congress Working Committee members, lawmakers, General Secretaries and other leaders, including K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Sachin Pilot and Salman Khurshid, were present at the protest in Jantar Mantar where vociferous demands for the scheme's rollback were voiced.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "By repeatedly giving false hope of jobs, the Prime Minister has forced the youth of the country to walk on the 'Agnipath' (fire path) of unemployment. In the last eight years, 16 crore jobs were promised but the youth only got to learn how to fry pakoras. The Prime Minister alone is responsible for this condition of the country."

Addressing the gathering, Priyanka said the government was not working for the poor or the youth but big industrialists.

Assuring Congress' full support to those peacefully protesting against the scheme, she said, "There is no bigger patriot than you. I want to tell you, open your eyes and recognise the fake nationalists and fake patriots. The entire country and the Congress are with you in your struggle."

Reciting Harivansh Rai Bachchan's Hindi poem 'Agnipath' while urging the youth to keep fighting peacefully and not cow down, she said, "The name of the poem has been given to a scheme that will destroy the youth. This scheme will destroy the Army. Recognise this government's intentions."

She urged the youth to bring the government down in a democratic way. "Your objective should be that such a government is formed in the country which shows real patriotism," she added. Pilot and other leaders appealed to the youth to be non-violent in their protests.

Also Read: No space for arson, vandalism: Armed forces on Agnipath protests

Separately, CPI(M)-backed DYFI and SFI staged a 'Parliament Chalo' protest against the Agnipath scheme here during which the leaders and other workers were forcefully removed from the protest site.

Rajya Sabha MP and DYFI president AA Rahim, DYFI General Secretary Himagnaraj Bhattararchya, SFI General Secretary Mayukh Biswas and JNU Students Union president Aishe Ghosh were among those detained. The DYFI and SFI activists alleged that they were assaulted by police personnel.

In a statement, the DYFI and SFI said that the new recruitment policy is a disaster for the aspiring youth and it would only result in generating more than 35,000 jobless recruits looking for work each year.

"As of 2021 the Indian Army had a shortage of 104,653 personnel. Moreover now the central government has decided to recruit through short-tenure conscription of four years, after which three-fourth of the soldiers will be retired without pension or gratuity. The policy is a direct threat to the sovereignty of our nation. The neo-liberal agenda of the central government aims for contractualisation of every job in the country. The latest threat to the military recruitment is another attempt to dilute and privatise the public assets of the country," it added.