Stand by demand for Agnipath scheme review: Vijai Singh Mankotia

Dharamsala, October 28

Former Congress minister Vijai Singh Mankotia, who today addressed the first press conference here after joining the BJP, found it hard to defend party candidate from Shahpur Sarveen Chaudhary against whom he had levelled serious allegations of corruption about two years ago and sought a CBI and ED inquiry.

Asked regarding his allegations against Sarveen, Mankotia just said he had been barred by the Himachal HC from making any statement over the issue. A defamation case was filed against him by Sarveen following the

allegations. When asked further, Mankotia said he would campaign for Sarveen since he had joined the BJP.

Mankotia, who had been a critic of the Agnipath scheme of recruitment in the Army, said he still stood by his demand for the review of the scheme. He said the ex-servicemen association of Himachal, of which he was the chairman, had written to Centre, demanding the review of the scheme. Most of the ex-servicemen are of the view that a soldier couldn’t be prepared for all kinds of battlefields in just four years.

When asked if the Agnipath scheme was a poll issue in Himachal, he said due to unemployment, lakhs of youth were applying for recruitment under it. “So, it’s not an election issue.”

About the discrimination against Kangra district during the stint of the present BJP government, Mankotia said it was for the elected MLAs to raise the issue. Earlier, he had targeted the present government for alleged discrimination against Kangra district.

Mankotia said he had joined the BJP under the influence of PM Narendra Modi. The PM had termed Himachal as ‘Karam Bhoomi’, which was an honour for any Himachali. It was mandatory that the BJP government under Modi repeats the government in 2024, he added.