By Animesh Singh / NEW DELHI
In a sudden U-turn, the Government has postponed the meeting of the consultative committee on defence to discuss the controversial Agnipath scheme, which was scheduled to be held tomorrow on July 8, 2022.
Instead, the meeting will now be held on July 11 and it would discuss the Agnipath recruitment scheme.
Sources aware of the development said that that the earlier scheduled meeting of the consultative committee on defence headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, which was to be held tomorrow, i.e. on July 8, 2022 on the Agnipath scheme, will now be held on July 11, 2022, to discuss the Agnipath recruitment scheme.
The change in agenda seems intriguing as ever since the Government had announced the scheme last month, the Opposition has been demanding its scrapping amid nation-wide protests against Agnipath.
Now, by postponing the meeting and even modifying the agenda, it seems to imply that rather than discussing the scheme itself, the discussion may focus on its recruitment process, with sources indicating that the Government may try to play up the fact that millions of applications have been received under it.
In fact, the Opposition had also voiced their concern over the consultative committee discussing the scheme just days before the commencement of the Monsoon session of Parliament, which is scheduled to begin from July 18, 2022.
The Opposition plans to corner the Government over the Agnipath scheme during the forthcoming Parliament session.
The Union Cabinet had cleared the recruitment scheme on June 14.
Under this scheme it was announced that 46,000 recruits, who would be known as “Agniveers” would be recruited this year.
In a statement, the Defence Ministry had said that the Agnipath scheme has been designed to provide a more youthful profile to the Armed Forces.
“It will provide an opportunity to the youth who may be keen to don the uniform by attracting young talent from the society who are more in tune with contemporary technological trends and plough back skilled, disciplined and motivated manpower into the society,” the statement read.
Under the Agnipath scheme, it has been envisioned that the average age profile of the Indian defence forces would come down by around five years.
A consultative committee of Parliament is normally headed by the minister of a particular ministry to which it is attached. For example, the consultative committee of defence is headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and it consists of 20 members from both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
However, unlike the Parliamentary standing committees, consultative committees are government committees where the discussions remain within the dimensions of the ruling dispensation’s narrative.
On the other hand, Parliamentary standing committees are headed by MPs of both ruling as well as Opposition parties and it has the authority to summon officials and industry stakeholders of sectors related to which it is holding deliberations on.
Standing committees also recommend measures to improve upon policy decisions and even reprimands the Government over any shortcomings visible during implementation of various central schemes.