Modi 3.0: The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is set for a record third term in power, though with a reduced majority this time. The swearing-in ceremony in which Narendra Modi will take oath as the Prime Minister for a record third time will be held on June 9. The NDA allies include the Telugu Desham Party of Chandrababu Naidu, the JDU of Nitish Kumar, the Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde, LJP-Ram Vilas of Chirag Paswan, the NCP of Ajit Pawar, and Apna Dal of Anupriya Patel. Since the BJP is short of the majority mark this time as it won only 240 seats, it’s relying on the TDP (16) and the JDU (12) to reach the majority mark of 272. Now, two of the main allies of the BJP have raised questions over the controversial ‘Agniveer’ scheme.
The opposition has already raised the issue of the Agniveer scheme demanding its rollback during the Lok Sabha poll campaign. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “I think Agniveer system should be scrapped immediately. Government should admit that it made a mistake, that it should not have introduced Agniveer system.”
While the opposition has raised the issue, two key NDA allies the JDU and the LJP-Ram Vilas have asked the government to review the scheme. JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi said that a section of voters has been upset over the Agniveer scheme. “Our party wants those shortcomings which have been questioned by the public to be discussed in detail and removed,” said Tyagi while reacting on the army recruitment scheme.
LJP-Ram Vilas leader Chirag Paswan also said that the NDA government should review how much it could deliver through the Agniveer scheme. Since the BJP will form a coalition government, it will be now bound to relook the scheme. As per reports, one of the reasons for the BJP’s loss of seats has been the Agniveer scheme. During the Lok Sabha poll campaign, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had said that the government is ready to look into the shortcomings of the Agniveer scheme.
Launched in 2022, the Agnipath scheme facilitates the short-term induction for four-years of personnel into the armed forces, with recruits being designated as Agniveers.