The Wire Wrap: Agniveer Scheme’s Origin, Budget and Unemployment Crisis, a Stronger Opposition

Prime minister Narendra Modi has attributed the genesis of the Agniveer scheme to the armed forces in a speech delivered on the occasion of the Kargil Vijay Diwas. The Union budget 2024-25, with its push on employment and skilling, has inadvertently acknowledged India’s unemployment crisis after setbacks faced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The opposition has accused the BJP of coming up with a “kursi bachao budget” to favour its key allies Janata Dal (United) and Telegu Desam Party with its budgetary prominence to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. A downsized BJP is dealing with changed dynamics in the parliament as Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha chairman and vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar navigate a stronger opposition. The Wire’s Sravasti Dasgupta is joined by The Wire’s founding editor M.K. Venu and senior journalist Javed Ansari.