Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday said the Election Commission of India (ECI) was “egregiously wrong” in directing his party not to ‘politicise’ the Agnipath scheme, saying that the Opposition party has the right to criticise a policy made by the government.
A day earlier, the poll body came down heavily on the ruling BJP and Congress asking them to not make remarks during the campaigning period along caste, community, language, and religious lines.
The Congress was asked by the ECI not to politicise the Armed Forces, referring to the remarks made by top Congress leaders on the Agnipath scheme.
The ECI, in its letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, directed him to instruct their star campaigners to desist “from indulging in any political propaganda involving activities of the Defence forces and not to make potentially divisive statements regarding socio-economic composition of Defence forces.”
In a post on X, Chidambaram said, “ECI is wrong in directing the Congress party not to ‘politicise’ the Agniveer scheme. What does ‘politicize’ mean? Does the ECI mean ‘criticise’?”
‘Agniveer’ creates two categories of soldiers who fight together, and that is wrong, Chidambaram said.
‘Agniveer’ employs a young man for four years and throws him out without a job and without a pension, and that is wrong,” the former Union Minister said.
“Agniveer was opposed by the Army, yet the government thrust the scheme upon the Army, and that is wrong. Hence, the Agniveer scheme must be scrapped,” he said.
“ECI was egregiously wrong in giving direction to the Congress party and, as a citizen, it is my right to say that ECI was egregiously wrong,” Chidambaram said.