On Friday, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Rahul Gandhi attacked the government regarding the Agnipath scheme by sharing a video of the father of the deceased Agniveer army officer, claiming that the family received Rs.50 lakh as insurance money from a private bank, and other than that, they received Rs. 48 lakh from the Army Group Insurance Fund. Rahul Gandhi raised questions that agniveer Ajay Kumar lost his life in providing service for the country on January 18 in a blast that occurred near the LOC, and his family did not get any funds from the government officials. He said that the government has not provided the salary arrears to the family of the army officer.
In the video posted by Gandhi on X, he revealed that the family has not been given any rules or assistance from the government and made a clear difference between the meanings of ‘insurance’ and ‘compensation’. He said, “The family of martyr Agniveer Ajay Kumar has not received any compensation from the government till date. There is a difference between ‘compensation’ and ‘insurance'. The payment has been made to the family of the martyr only by the insurance company.”
He claimed that “the family of every martyr who sacrificed their life for the country should be respected, but the Modi government is discriminating against them. No matter what the government says, it is a matter of national security, and I will keep raising it.”
The INDIA bloc leader claimed that he and his party will never allow or promote the armed forces to be weak; they work for national security. In the video, which was shared by Gandhi on his social media site, of the father of the martyr Ajay Kumar, he explained that the government key officials claimed that 'we would get Rs. 1 crore from them, but it has not been provided to us till now.' Later on, Gandhi explained the difference between the Agniveers and normal Jawans, in which he attacked the government, and how they differentiate between these two kinds of army forces.
He explained that the benefits provided by the government are only for the normal jawans, that is, both the army person and the normal jawan. Whether they are the agniveers or normal jawans, they will sacrifice their lives for the sake of the country, but one would be provided with the pension, and the other one will not get that. One would get the canteen facility, but the other would not be provided with it. He provided his approach, saying that if everyone is fighting on the same level for national security, then they should be provided with equal respect and opportunities. The opposition has attacked and questioned the government many times over the implications of the Agnipath scheme, but the government has not provided any kind of clarification over this issue.