Agniveer scheme will be thrown in dustbin if INDIA bloc wins: Rahul

Chandigarh: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said “If the Opposition’s INDIA bloc comes to power in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, it will dispose of the Agniveer scheme into the dustbin”.

Addressing a public meeting in Haryana's Mahendragarh, Rahul Gandhi said, “PM Narendra Modi has made the jawans of India like labourers...The Army doesn't want the Agniveer scheme. It’s a scheme made by PMO. Once Congress comes to power, we will discard the scheme entirely.”

In his first election meeting in the state, he said, “They (the BJP) say there will be two types of martyrs -- one normal jawan and officer, who will get a pension, martyr status, all facilities and on the other hand, a person from a poor family who has been named Agniveer. Agniveers will neither get martyr status, no pension, no canteen facility.”

Wooing the youth, he said, “The youth of Haryana feels proud to be selected for the Army.” Taking the cause of protesting farmers, he said, “The farmers of Haryana work in the fields of the country; the Modi government snatched away your rights and abolished the Land Tribunal Bill to help the billionaires; then three (farm) laws came, but the government had to step back.” The Congress leader accused PM Modi of waiving off the loan of Rs 16 lakh crore of a few capitalists.