Amid, nationwide protests against the ‘Agnipath’ scheme for the armed forces, senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya said he would prefer recruiting ‘Agniveers’ as security guards at the party office.
Talking to reporters, the BJP leader said discipline and following orders are important parts of the armed forces.
“Suppose ‘Agniveer’ joins the armed forces at the age of 21 then he will still be 25 by the time he leaves the forces. He will have Rs. 11 lakh cash in his hand and will proudly flaunt the ‘Agniveer’ medal on his chest. If I have to hire someone for the security for the BJP office here, I will give a preference to him,” the senior BJP leader said.
After his statement went viral, the BJP leader in a tweet blamed the “toolkit gang” for twisting and distorting his remarks.
People associated with the toolkit are trying to insult the ‘Agniveer’ by distorting my statement and the nation is well aware of the conspiracies hatched by them, he added.
Reacting to his statement, Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said “our armed forces will also train for Agniveers to become security guards. This is trivialising the importance of our men in uniform.”
Earlier, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy had reportedly said that those who will be recruited under the scheme will be trained with the skills of drivers, electricians, barbers and other professionals.
His remark invited sharp reactions with AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi saying that serving in the army is a prestigious profession with no parallel.
“These men are willing to kill or get killed for India. If they wanted to be drivers, etc why would they spend 4 years in the army? It’s clear that BJP sees ‘Agniveers’ as nothing but chowkidaars on hire,” Owaisi tweeted.
He also blasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he is playing with India’s security and destroying the future of youth.
