"Bulldozed...": Congress Cites Ex Army Chief's Book Over Agnipath Scheme

Citing a new book written by former Army chief General M M Naravane, the Congress alleged on Tuesday that the Agnipath scheme for short-term recruitment into the armed forces was "bulldozed" through, "without meaningful consultations" with those who were being directly impacted by such a "disastrous policy".

In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "The headlines are being hogged by the mass suspension of INDIA MPs that has reached 142 till now. But these headlines should not minimise the importance of other news." 

Former Chief of Army Staff General M M Naravane has disclosed in his memoir that the Agnipath or Agniveer scheme came as a total surprise to the Army, Air Force and Navy chiefs, Mr Ramesh said.

"He (Naravane) has now confirmed what had been commonly believed when the Agnipath/Agniveer scheme was bulldozed through without meaningful consultations with those who were being directly impacted by such a disastrous policy," he said.

At a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi weeks after becoming the Army chief, General Naravane sounded out in early 2020 about the "Tour of Duty" scheme for inducting soldiers for short tenures but months later, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) came up with a formulation with a much wider scope to include all the three services.

This is what General Naravane has written in his memoir, titled "Four Stars of Destiny", while elaborating on the birth of the Agnipath scheme -- considered India's most radical military recruitment policy.

After the formulation of the new scheme, General Naravane has said the Army was "taken by surprise by this turn of events, but for the Navy and Air Force, it came like a bolt from the blue".

"When I had first sounded out the prime minister about the Tour of Duty scheme, it was more on the lines of a short-service option at the soldier level, similar to the Short Service Commission scheme for officers that was already in vogue," the former Army chief has written.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



from NDTV News- Topstories https://ift.tt/SkKaM7D
https://ift.tt/Km5OLBj

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UK Man Who Couldn't Read Or Write Until Age 18 Becomes Cambridge Professor

Jason Arday was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and global development delay in his early years. He was unable to speak until he was 11 years old and could not read or write until he was 18. Now at the age of 37, he is about to become the youngest black person ever appointed to a professorship at the University of Cambridge, BBC reported. Eight years ago, Mr Arday was told that he would likely need to stay in an assisted living facility. The man refused to make that a reality. He used to write his lifelong goals on his mother's bedroom wall. He wrote that he wants to "work at Oxford or Cambridge." Mr Arday was born and raised in Clapham, southwest London. "As optimistic as I am, there's just no way I could have thought that would have happened. If I was a betting person, the odds on it were so long. It's just mad," he told The Times of UK . He admitted that he had "no idea" what he was doing when he first began writing academic paper
Read more