Oppn urges Centre to roll back Agnipath as it was brought without 'consultations'

The opposition MPs also submitted a signed memorandum to Defence Minister in support of their demand to withdraw the scheme. Interestingly, Congress MP Manish Tiwari opposed signing the memorandum. "Although Manish Tiwari did not sign the memorandum, he supported us in opposing the scheme," said TMC MP Roy.

New Delhi:The opposition parties on Monday demanded to the Central government to roll back the Agnipath scheme. They have also asked the government to send Agnipath to the Defence Standing Committee. "We have appealed to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to roll back the Agnipath scheme and send it to the Defence Standing Committee for scrutiny," said Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saugata Roy to ETV Bharat after attending a meeting of the consultative committee for Defence chaired by Defence Minister.

The opposition MPs also submitted a signed memorandum to Defence Minister in support of their demand to withdraw the scheme. Interestingly, Congress MP Manish Tiwari opposed signing the memorandum. "Although Manish Tiwari did not sign the memorandum, he supported us in opposing the scheme," said Roy. Monday's meeting was attended by both Saugata Roy and Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Supriya Sule from NCP, Rajni Patel, and Shakti Singh from Congress among others. AD Singh from BJD also attended the meeting. The meeting was also attended by senior officials from the Defence Ministry.

"The Defence Ministry today gave a presentation and told us about the Agnipath scheme. But the Agnipath scheme was implemented without proper consultation with all stakeholders and the ongoing protest against the scheme is the result of non -consultation with all concerned people," the TMC MP added.

Referring to the recent killing of the former Prime Minister of Japan, Roy said that if a person works under the Agnipath scheme and loses his job after four years, what is the guarantee that he will not compromise the security of the country. "What happened to Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was a classic example," said Roy. Defence Minister, Singh, however, said that it was a very good meeting.