New Delhi: The Congress is trying to cash in on the prevailing anti-Agnipath sentiment and concerns over unemployment rates in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh, home to a large number of serving and ex-servicemen. According to estimates, the hill state has around 1.3 lakh ex-servicemen and around 1.25 lakh active servicemen. If an average family size is four persons, this works out to be around 10 lakh persons, out of the total 70 lakh population, who are dependent on a defense job.
“Though areas like Kangra and Hamirpur have a concentration of families that prefer a job in the armed forces, the servicemen are spread all across the state. They are an important segment of the society in the hill state where people have a passion for the armed forces,” Congress Legislative Party leader Mukesh Agnihotri told ETV Bharat in an exclusive interview.
“The youth are unhappy with the Agnipath scheme. It is a fraud against the youth of the state and of the country. We strongly oppose the scheme as it has brought despair among our people. We want to give them hope,” he said. According to Agnihotri, “We have started a campaign which will cover the entire state. We are telling people that if the BJP comes to power again, the four-year job pattern with no pension (Agnipath) may be introduced in state government jobs.”
“The Congress has always been in favor of stable government jobs. Hence, we are telling people that if you want a 34-year job with a pension facility, vote for us. If you are happy with a 4-year job with no pension facility, go to the BJP,” he said. The Congress leader said that since Himachal Pradesh has a small industrial base and gets limited funds from the Centre, local people have a preference for a central or a state government job.
“As a result, Himachal Pradesh has around 3 lakh government servants out of the total 70 lakh population. If an average family size is of four persons, it works out to 12 lakh persons dependent on a state government job,” said Agnihotri. Himachal Pradesh, the Congress leader said, was carved out of Punjab in 1971 to address the political concerns of the hill people and in the process did not get adequate financial guarantees from the Centre. “This affects local development,” he said.
Realizing the importance that a government job has among the locals, the Congress is also promising to bring back the old pension scheme which was stopped by the Centre during the previous NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “The Centre asked the states to end the old pension scheme. But Congress governments in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have recently restarted it. We would also do the same if our party is voted to power,” said Agnihotri.
Expressing the hope that the party’s campaign against the Agnipath scheme would find resonance among the people, the Congress Legislative Party leader claimed that the opposition party was on a comeback trail. “The Congress is coming back to Himachal,” he said. When asked if he would be the chief ministerial face during the campaign, Agnihotri played safe by saying that a decision on who would be the CM was the prerogative of the party's high command. “Our focus is to bring the party back to power,” he said.
The Congress leader dismissed the threat from the Aam Aadmi Party, which has become hopeful in the state after it recently swept the neighboring Punjab polls. “AAP’s handling of governance, especially law and order in Punjab, has exposed the party. People are seeing all this and they now understand it may not be in their interest to hand over power to a non-serious player. This would go in our favor,” said Agnihotri.
The AAP is trying hard to gain ground in Himachal Pradesh as it has calculated that Congress is a divided house and may not be able to put up a strong fight against the ruling BJP. In the 2017 assembly elections, BJP had won 44 of the total 68 seats and formed the government headed by chief minister Jairam Thakur.
The Congress had won 21 seats and had been trying to put up a united show, especially after the demise of its tallest leader and former chief minister Vibhadra Singh. In a calculated move, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi recently revamped the state unit and appointed Lok Sabha member Pratibha Singh, wife of late Virbahdra Singh, as the new state unit chief. In a balance of power equations, she also named former state unit chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu as the campaign chief and retained Mukesh Agnihotri as the CLP leader.
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In Delhi, the Congress deployed Colonel (Retd) Manvendra Singh, son of former BJP union minister Jaswant Singh, to demand a rollback of the Agnipath scheme. “If this scheme is implemented, there would be two types of soldiers, regular and Agniveers, in a combat unit which would not be feasible. The training of regular combat soldiers is tougher. Agniveers would have to be given more tough training by the company commanders. At best they would be able to do sentry duties but would not be trusted for combat roles,” said Singh.
“The scheme is a political decision and the forces did not want it. Duality of privileges among the two types of soldiers in a combat unit is a sure-shot disaster. Any reform should be transparent and not done surreptitiously,” he said. "Let us wait to see the registrations under the scheme. However, I think the best option is to roll back the scheme," he said.
