New Delhi: Hours after the Indian Army said in a post on X that the family of Agniveer Ajay Kumar has “already been paid Rs 98.39 lakhs”, the Congress on Thursday (July 4) alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government is bringing out “half truths” and using the ADGPI’s handle to “mislead” the people of India.
The compensation provided to the family of Ajay Kumar – an Agniveer killed in a land mine explosion on January 18 – has become the subject of claims and counterclaims between the Congress and the BJP since leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi’s maiden speech in Lok Sabha on July 1.
In his speech, Gandhi referred to the Agnipath as a “use and throw” scheme and alleged that Kumar’s family had not received compensation. Union minister for defence Rajnath Singh had intervened in his speech and said Agniveers get Rs 1 crore as compensation if killed on the line of duty. On July 3, Gandhi posted a video on X in which he said that the defence minister had lied to parliament about this compensation. Hours later, the Indian Army spokesperson’s handle on X posted a clarification stating that Agniveer Ajay’s family had already received over Rs 98 lakhs.
In a press conference in New Delhi, Congress’ ex-servicemen department chairperson Colonel Rohit Chaudhry said that an atmosphere of uncertainty had been created by the BJP government.
“In parliament, the defence minister presented incomplete information to the country, which created an atmosphere of doubt. As the main opposition, it is our responsibility to raise the issue of discrimination being done against the army and Agniveers,” he said,
According to Chaudhry, while the defence minister stated in parliament that Agniveers are given Rs 1 crore in compensation he did not state the differences in the emoluments provided under the Agnipath scheme and to regular soldiers.
“He said that Agniveers get Rs 1 crore in compensation but did not say that regular soldiers get around Rs 2.4 crores. Agniveer gets Rs 48 lakh insurance while a regular martyred soldier gets Rs 75 lakh. Rajnath Singh has not mentioned these differences,” he said.
He added that, Agniveer Ajay had been given “Rs 48 lakhs by the Army group insurance. The rest has been given by the state government and other sources. Rajnath Singh said Rs 1 crore has been given, which is wrong.”
Former IAF officer Anuma Acharya who was also addressing the press conference said that the Modi government is entangling the truth in technical intricacies.
“The Modi government is bringing out half-truths, entangling them in technical intricacies, and using the ADGPI’s official handle to mislead the people of India. We condemn this,” she said.
Meanwhile, the family of Agniveer Ajay who had reported earlier as saying on July 3, that they had received Rs 48 lakhs, told NDTV on Thursday that they had received Rs 98 lakhs.
“First, we got 50 lakh insurance money from the ICICI bank. Then we got 48 lakh rupees from the army. We haven’t received the full amount yet. The Army has told us that they will give us 60 lakh rupees more. We haven’t received that money yet though. Don’t know when we will get it,” his father told the channel.
