The goal of the Agnipath scheme is to make the Indian Army continuously fit for war, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi defending the scheme during Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrations at Dras on Friday.
"In the last 10 years, we have made defence reform a priority in the defence sector. Because of these reforms, our armed forces are now more capable and self-reliant," the prime minister said.
Celebrating 25 years of India’s victory against Pakistan in the Kargil War, Modi said Agnipath was one of the necessary reforms done by the Army. “Some people used to think that the Army means saluting politicians, doing parades... but for us, Army means the faith of 140 crore countrymen. The goal of Agnipath is to make the Army young, to keep the Army continuously fit for war,” Modi said at Dras.
He charged some have turned it into a political issue and they are the ones who weakened the Army by committing scams. “Unfortunately, some people have made such a sensitive issue related to national security as a subject of politics. These are the same people who weakened our Army by committing scams worth thousands of crores in the Army,” he said.
Modi added some are spreading misconceptions that the government took this decision to save on pension but that’s not the case. “The question of pension for today's recruits will only arise after 30 years,” he said adding, “We have respected this decision taken by the Army because we work for 'rashtraneeti' not 'rajneeti'.”
Modi charged those who are misleading youth have never cared about soldiers. "The history of those who are misleading the youth of the country shows that they do not care about the soldiers. These are the same people who lied about One Rank One Pension. It is our government which implemented One Rank One Pension, gave more than Rs 1.25 lakh crore to ex-servicemen,” he said.
Modi charged, “These are the same people who did not build a war memorial, these are the same people who did not provide adequate bulletproof jackets to our soldiers deployed on the border.”
Talking about the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, Modi said, “In a few days, on August 5, it will be five years since Article 370 was abolished. Jammu and Kashmir is talking about a new future, talking about big dreams. Along with infrastructure development, the tourism sector is also growing rapidly in Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.” Modi said, “Our heaven on earth is rapidly moving towards peace and harmony.”
