By: Keshav Agarwal
PILIBHIT: The Centre's Agnipath scheme "will give rise to dissatisfaction among youths and will pose an obstacle for them in career building," said BJP's Pilibhit MP Firoz Varun Gandhi on Thursday. He urged defence minister Rajnath Singh to revise the Agnipath draft and give top preference to the interests of unemployed youths.
Gandhi was addressing a public gathering at a banquet hall in Puranpur in Pilibhit district. He said the benefit of the scheme for unemployed youths would be momentary as 75% of the recruited youths would be left to struggle with unemployment again after four years of service.
Notably, Varun had invited reactions from youths on Twitter after the Agnipath scheme was announced on June 14.
In response, his twitter account showed 2,565 retweets, 385 quote tweets, while there were over 10,000 'likes'. Almost everyone, barring a few, criticised the scheme sharply.
A Twitter account holder, Ameeque Jamei, wrote: "What will these troops do after four years of service? We make them snipers and train them to operate sophisticated guns. Tomorrow, there will be the threat of their joining any Maoist or Naxalite outfit." Another youth, Anuj Yadav, reacted: "Agnipath scheme is not a masterstroke of BJP but a threat to our future.”
