Congress leader and MP Manish Tewari’s support for the new Agnipath scheme for short-term recruitment in the armed forces triggered a war of words on Twitter with a fellow party member. While the Congress party has been critical of Agnipath’, Tewari said it was a much-needed reform in the right direction. The Lok Sabha member from Anandpur Sahib argued that India needs a younger armed force with a lighter but tech-savvy human footprint equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry. He insisted that the armed forces of the Union shouldn't be an employment guarantee programme.
As Tewari repeated his argument during a news programme, a fellow Congress leader suggested that it was his personal opinion and not the party's.
“With due respect instead of Congress' @ManishTewari mention in the tweet below just @ManishTewari would have sufficed in this context. Clearly our stand on #AgnipathScheme is different & has already been communicated by people responsible,” Saptagiri Ulaka, Lok Sabha member from Odisha’s Koraput, tweeted.
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Hitting out at the 43-year-old parliamentarian, Tewari asked Ulaka to refrain from “these snide tweets” and said he was actively working for Congress when “you may have been running around in your knickers.”
“Dear @saptagiriulaka ji You are valued colleague in Lok Sabha. However May I respectfully point out that when you may have been running around in your knickers my dear friend I was actively working for @INCIndia . I would request you to kindly refrain from these snide tweets,” Tewari replied.
{{/usCountry}}“Dear @saptagiriulaka ji You are valued colleague in Lok Sabha. However May I respectfully point out that when you may have been running around in your knickers my dear friend I was actively working for @INCIndia . I would request you to kindly refrain from these snide tweets,” Tewari replied.
{{/usCountry}}The protests against the major defence recruitment policy reform turned violent in multiple states as protesters attacked public and police vehicles and set ablaze train coaches on Thursday. Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to listen to the voice of unemployed youths and don’t take ‘agnipariksha’ (ordeal by fire) of their patience.
"No rank, no pension, no direct recruitment for 2 years, no stable future after four years, no respect shown by the government for the army," Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.