Why political slugfest over Agnipath scheme looks set to intensify

The political slugfest between the BJP and the Congress over the Centre’s Agnipath scheme is set to intensify further.

The Congress on Thursday (July 4) reiterated its demand for scrapping the controversial short-term armed forces recruitment scheme, even rebutting the claim of the Army that the family of slain Agniveer Ajay Kumar had “already been paid Rs 98.39 lakh” and would receive an additional ex-gratia and benefits amounting to approximately Rs 67 lakh “on Final Account Settlement post due police verification”.

The “clarification” from the Army’s Additional Directorate General of Public Information claiming Kumar’s family will ultimately receive approximately Rs 1.65 crore came in the backdrop of Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s recent assertion in the Lok Sabha that slain Agniveers “neither receive compensation nor the status of a martyr”. Kumar, a native of Ramgarh Sardaran village in Punjab’s Ludhiana district, had been killed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri this January in a landmine explosion.

Rahul releases video

Rahul’s accusation, made during his intervention in discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address in the Lok Sabha, was countered by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Singh accused Rahul of spreading misinformation about Agnipath and asserted that families of slain Agniveers are paid Rs 1 crore in compensation. Rahul, however, rejected Singh’s claim and released a video on Wednesday (July 3), in which he accused Singh of “lying in Parliament”.

The video also featured an interaction that Rahul had had with Kumar’s family this May, during which the slain Agniveer’s father told the Congress leader that while the “Punjab government granted us Rs 1 crore, the Central government hasn’t given us anything”.

The video also had a fresh byte recorded by Kumar’s father after Rahul’s heated Lok Sabha exchange with Singh. In the fresh byte, Kumar’s father reiterates that the Centre hasn’t paid his family any compensation as yet and that Rahul was “raising our voice in Parliament”. The clarification from the Army’s ADGPI was posted on X shortly after Rahul released the video.

While the Centre may have hoped that the statement from the ADGPI, which also emphasised that “the Indian Army salutes the supreme sacrifice made by Agniveer Ajay Kumar”, would even grant the BJP ammunition to launch a counter-offensive against Rahul over the Agniveer debate, it only toughened the Congress’ attack.

Congress’ fresh salvo

On Thursday, the first salvo came from Pawan Khera, chief of the Congress’s media wing. In a post on X, Khera hit out at the Centre and Singh saying, “Please don’t hide behind our Indian Army now. You stood up in Parliament to announce that (Rs) 1 crore was given to the kin of martyr Ajay Kumar. His father clearly says (Rs) 1 crore was not given. Of the amount claimed to have been given, how much is the insurance money, how much is the amount given by the state government? Are you claiming that the insurance money given to the kin of the martyr is also a favour given to the martyr by your government?”

Next, Colonel (retired) Rohit Chaudhary, chairman of the Congress’s Ex-Serviceman department, and party spokesperson Wing Commander (retired) Anuma Acharya, addressed the media, punching holes in the factual accuracy of ADGPI’s statement.

Chaudhary said according to the Agniveer policy, recruits slain in the line of duty would be entitled to “Rs 48 lakh insurance and Rs 44 lakhs ex-gratia and Rs 8 lakhs from the Army’s battle casualty welfare fund”.

The Congress leader, however, claimed that Singh’s assertion in the Lok Sabha was a “half truths” which concealed the fact that while slain Agniveers are “owed Rs 1 crore (as owed towards insurance and other emoluments), families of regular recruits who have served at the rank of sepoys for 15 years and are martyred are paid over Rs 2.43 crore while kin of slain regular recruits serving as havaldars with a service of up to 24 years are paid over Rs 3.25 crore”.

Separate group of recruits

Chaudhary also explained the “differences in payments” made to slain Agniveers and regular Armed Forces recruits, alleging that the Agniveer scheme had “created divisions within the Armed Forces by making two separate groups of recruits with separate entitlements despite both of them serving the country and putting their lives on the line”.

“Insurance for Agniveer is Rs 48 lakh, for a regular recruit it is Rs 75 lakh; ex-gratia for Agniveer is Rs 44 lakh but for regular recruit it is Rs 55 lakh and while a regular recruit who is killed in the line of duty gets the status of a martyr, the same is not extended to a slain Agniveer, who also is excluded from all benefits that are extended to a slain regular recruit,” Chaudhary said.

Chaudhary also said that as per the terms and conditions of the Army’s recruitment policy, if an Agniveer is slain in action of the first day of duty, his family is paid his full salary, amounting to about Rs 4 lakh, for the next four years while if a regular recruit is killed on day one of duty, his family is paid the full salary for the next 15 years along with a life-long pension, gratuity and medical benefits for his family for their entire lifetime besides canteen benefits, educational benefits and scholarship benefits.

The Congress has now demanded that the Centre must come out with a White Paper on the Agnipath Scheme. Party insiders told The Federal that Rahul and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will soon reach out to senior leaders of the INDIA bloc to back this demand when Parliament convenes for its next session.

SP extends support

Sources said the party has already been assured of “full support” for its campaign against Agnipath by Akhilesh Yadav, whose Samajwadi Party has the next largest contingent of Opposition MPs – 37 members – in the Lok Sabha after the Congress. Uttar Pradesh, the political karmabhoomi of the SP, is also a major recruitment area for the Armed Forces. Their campaign against the controversial scheme, SP and Congress believe, had been instrumental in substantially reducing the BJP’s seats in UP in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.

With Assembly elections due in Haryana, a major recruitment state for the Armed Forces, towards the end of this year, sources say the Congress’ pitch against the Agnipath is only going to get shriller.

“Agniveer is a huge issue in Haryana because it is a state that sends a huge contingent to the Armed Forces every time recruitments are done. The Lok Sabha poll results also show that our stand on the Agnipath Scheme was widely appreciated in the state and in all other states which are major recruiting grounds for the Army. We will, thus, keep raising our voice against the scheme till the Centre is forced to scrap it. A number of agitations and press conferences to expose the drawbacks and the lies of the government about the scheme are being planned,” a senior Congress leader from Haryana told The Federal.

Party insiders also said that more interactions between Congress leaders and families of slain Agniveers – 13 so far – like the one between Rahul and Kumar’s family could take place in the coming months to “highlight the plight of the families of our slain soldiers who the government doesn’t even wish to recognise as martyrs”.