CPI (M) calls Agnipath ploy to turn India into ‘Hindu Rashtra’

The outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) has expressed opposition to the Agnipath scheme, calling it a plot by the Modi government to militarise civil society.

The Maoists expressed concern that Agnipath could promote training in RSS and BJP ideology to make India a ‘Hindu state’.

The central committee of the CPI (Maoist) has released a statement pointing to the violent agitation in several states like Bihar against Agnipath and the killing of one army job aspirant in the police firing at Secunderabad railway station on Friday.

“Agnipath is a fascist instrument of suppression on people in the name of employment generation,” the Maoist apex body said. An appeal was made to the youth not to join Agnipath, which “shall take the country towards ‘one nation, one police’ policy to suppress all the sections.”

It accused the Modi government of bringing in the scheme to cut down the expenditure on defence sector wages and pensions, obliging to the “conditions set by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to minimise government expenditure.”