Highlights
- Sources said Congress may initiate a disciplinary action against Manish Tewari
- In a meeting, the Opposition had demanded the withdrawal of the Agnipath recruitment scheme
- All six, except Tewari, signed a memorandum for the withdrawal of the scheme
Agnipath scheme: Trouble may be brewing for Congress MP Manish Tewari after he refused to sign the Opposition's memorandum seeking withdrawal of the Centre's Agnipath recruitment scheme. According to a report with news agency ANI, there is an outrage within the party against Tewari who has openly supported the Agnipath scheme contrary to the party's stand.
Though the Congress party has already termed Manish's remarks about the Agnipath scheme as his personal opinion and not the party's stand, the Congress is also discussing Tewari's suspension, the report quoted sources as saying.
Sources also said the party may initiate disciplinary action against Manish Tewari for not toeing the party line.
A party source said if Tewari is expelled from the party, then he will continue to remain as a Member of Parliament and hence suspension seems a better decision to keep him trapped.
"The matter is stuck in view of Manish's association with the party during the time of NSUI. The ball is in the high command's court. Now, the relationship between Manish and Congress is very weak. Either Manish changes his stand or else action can be taken against him soon," added the party source.
Agnipath scheme: What did Manish Tewari say?
In a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Defence, a demand was made by the Opposition for the withdrawal of the Agnipath recruitment scheme.
Out of the total of 12 MPs in the meeting, six were from Opposition parties - Rajni Patil, Shaktisinh Gohil and Manish Tewari of the Congress, Supriya Sule of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Saugata Roy of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), and AD Singh from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
All six, except Tewari, signed a memorandum for the withdrawal of the scheme.
Further, Tewari in a tweet, 'empathising' with youth who had concerns over the scheme, said, "Reality is that India needs a younger armed force with lighter human footprint savvy on technology, equipped with state of the art weaponry."
The Agnipath Scheme, which was approved by the cabinet on June 14, was launched in an effort to bring a change in the recruitment process of the Armed Forces.
With the new military recruitment scheme facing criticism, the Centre decided to grant a one-time waiver and on June 16 announced that the upper age limit for recruitment via Agnipath Scheme has been extended to 23 years from 21 years.
The Ministry of Defence, in its statement in June 2022, said that the Agnipath scheme has been designed to enable a youthful profile of the Armed Forces.
(With inputs and quotes from ANI)
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