BJP national executive lauds Agnipath scheme panned by Opposition

The BJP national executive on Saturday lauded the Agnipath military recruitment scheme, which has been panned by the Opposition, and the government's announcement of providing 10 lakh jobs in the next 18 months.

Briefing reporters after the party passed a resolution on economy and "garib kalyan sankalp" (resolve for the poor's welfare), Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's work in this regard has become a "global model".

He also dismissed the Opposition's allegations about job crisis while replying to a question and said the last Union budget had made the highest-ever allocation for public spending and the government did the highest-ever capital spending during the Covid pandemic. All of this are linked to job creation, he said.

If there was an acute crisis, then social harmony would have been hit, he said, asserting that the government has created jobs and taken care of the poor.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh proposed the resolution while his Cabinet colleague Piyush Goyal and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar seconded it.

Hailing the Modi government's governance model, Pradhan described the government as "reformist and decisive government", which inherited a policy paralysis government.

Pradhan said the welfare of poor is the main achievement of the government and its achievers are evidence-based.

To questions about inflation and continuous weakening of the rupee against US dollar, Pradhan noted that the unprecedented crisis was not limited to India with many leading economies suffering from high inflation.

The pandemic disrupted the entire world, with global commodity prices sky-rocketing. He also cited the war in Ukraine to say that India cannot be seen in isolation.

India's economy is growing at a rate of more than 8 per cent, he said, asserting that the country has become a hotspot of global investment.

Last month, the government had announced the Agnipath scheme, under which youths between the ages of 17-and-a-half and 21 years would be inducted in the armed forces for a four-year-tenure, while 25 per cent of them will be subsequently inducted for regular service.