Rahul targets BJP over Agniveer: ‘Turned soldiers into labourers’

Campaigning for Congress’s Patiala Lok Sabha constituency candidate Dr Dharamvira Gandhi, Rahul said, “Dharamvira runs a 'Mohabbat ki dukaan' in Patiala, where he runs an OPD to help the poor.

Rahul Gandhi, Lok Sabha Elections 2024, Rahul targets BJP over Agniveer, Dharamvira Gandhi, Agniveer, Agniveer scheme, Amarinder Singh, Indian express news, current affairs

Rahul Gandhi with Dharamvira Gandhi, Congress’s Lok Sabha candidate, in Patiala on Wednesday. PTI

Exhorting party workers in former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh’s bastion of Patiala to rout PM Narendra Modi-led BJP government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the PM of “spreading hate based on religion”.

Campaigning for Congress’s Patiala Lok Sabha constituency candidate Dr Dharamvira Gandhi, Rahul said, “Dharamvira runs a ‘Mohabbat ki dukaan’ in Patiala, where he runs an OPD to help the poor. I have been trying to convey a message of love in this vitiated environment. The Bharat Jodo Yatra was to spread the message of love. I have been doing it for 10 years. But Dharamvira ji has been doing it for 50 years.”

Explained | The benefits that Agniveers get, compared with those of regular soldiers

Earlier, at a rally in Dakha for his party’s Ludhiana candidate Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Gandhi targeted the BJP over the Agnipath scheme. “They are insulting jawans of the country. Jawano ko mazdoor bana diya hai inhone. (They have turned soldiers into labourers). As soon as the Congress comes to power, the Agniveer scheme will be torn and thrown into the dustbin and all martyrs will get equal respect and benefits, pension etc,” he said.

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Also Read | Army conducts own survey on scheme for Agniveers, may recommend tweaks

Gandhi also met the family of Agniveer Ajay Singh (23), who was killed in a landmine explosion in the Rajouri sector in Jammu and Kashmir in January, in Ramgarh Sardaran village of Khanna.

Also read | In Haryana, Rahul Gandhi slams PM Modi over ‘Adani partnership’, Agniveer issue

He also raked up the issue of the drug menace in Punjab. “The drug issue in Punjab not only continues to exist, but it is only growing. To deal with the menace, immediate action is required with full authority and aggression,” he said.

In Dakha, Gandhi also paid tribute to slain Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala on his second death anniversary.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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