NEW DELHI: In a fast rebuttal of the opposition's charge that recruitment under the Agnipath scheme required a caste certificate to be submitted by applicants, the Narendra Modi government said it was fake, with defence minister Rajnath Singh rejecting the charge in no time.
On Tuesday morning, Aam Aadmi Party's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh tweeted an image of an appointment letter downloaded from a website ‘joinindianarmy.nic.in’. The letter laid down certain criteria, including those of caste and religion, for selection. The letter said, “Caste certificate affixed with photograph issued by tehsildar/district magistrate. Religion certificate to be issued by the tehsildar/SDM (if religion as 'Sikh/Hindu/Muslim/Christian' is not mentioned in caste certificate').”
Sanjay Singh criticised the criteria and said in a tweet, “The ugly face of the Modi government has come in front of the country. Does Modi not consider Dalits/backwards/tribals eligible for Army recruitment? For the first time in the history of India, caste is being asked in Army recruitment. Modi ji, do you have to make 'Agniveer' or 'Jaativeer'?"
Leader of opposition in Bihar assembly Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD too came down heavily on the Modi government and the RSS.
In a tweet, Yadav said, “Do not ask the caste of the monk, but ask the caste of the soldier. The BJP government of the Sangh runs away from caste census but asks caste from the Agniveer brothers who will sacrifice their lives in the service of the country. They are asking the castes because the country's largest casteist organisation RSS will later sort out Agniveers on the basis of caste."
The two opposition leaders were joined by BJP dissenter Varun Gandhi. The Lok Sabha MP from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh asked the government to think about the impact of the recruitment criterion.
Gandhi said, "There is no reservation of any kind in the Army, but caste certificate is being sought in the recruitment of Agnipath. Will we now decide someone's patriotism by looking at their caste? The government should think about the impact on our national security by changing the established traditions of the Army."
Rebuttals
Defence minister Rajnath Singh rejected the charges. While talking to mediapersons in the Parliament complex, he said, "It is just a rumour. (The) earlier system, existing since the pre-independence era, is going on. No change has been made. (The) old system is being continued."
The central government’s ‘PIB (Press Information Bureau) Fact Check’ handle on Twitter called the letter “fake”.
It said, “An appointment letter is circulating on social media with the purported signature of DGHRD, @cbic_india. This letter is #Fake. No such letter has been issued by DGHRD, CBIC. Appointment letters are issued by the ministry and not by DGHRD, CBIC."
BJP's national in-charge of information and technology department Amit Malviya tagged Sanjay Singh's tweet and debunked him. He said, “The Army, in an affidavit filed before the SC (Supreme Court) in 2013, has made it clear that it does not recruit on the basis of caste, region and religion. It, however, justified grouping of people coming from a region in a regiment for administrative convenience and operational requirements.”
Malviya, who is also the BJP’s co-in-charge of West Bengal, further said, "This obsession to blame PM Modi for everything means the likes of Sanjay Singh put their foot in their mouth every day. Army’s regiment system has existed right from the British era. Post-independence, it was formalised in 1949, through a Special Army Order. The Modi government has changed nothing."
