Cong upset with Manish Tewari for his stand on Agnipath scheme

New Delhi, July 13: Congress leadership is reportedly upset with its MP Manish Tewari, who is part of the Consultative Committee for Defence in Parliament, for refusing to sign the Opposition's memorandum seeking withdrawal of the Centre's Agnipath recruitment scheme.

Tiwari in a tweet, 'empathising' with youth who had concerns over the scheme, said, "Reality is that India needs a younger armed force with lighter human footprint savvy on technology, equipped with state of the art weaponry."

His support for the scheme has left the party leaders angry and fuming. The displeasure increased following his refusal to sign the Opposition's memorandum for the withdrawal of the Centre's Agnipath recruitment scheme, sources informed news agency ANI.

A demand was made by the Opposition for the withdrawal of the Agnipath recruitment scheme in the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Defence. Out of the total of 12 MPs in the meeting, six were from Opposition parties - Rajni Patil, Shaktisinh Gohil and Manish Tewari of the Congress, Supriya Sule of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Saugata Roy of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), and AD Singh from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

All six, except Tewari, signed a memorandum for the withdrawal of the scheme.

While Congress has opposed the Agnipath recruitment scheme in the armed forces, Tewari has said it is the need of the hour, as many other militaries of other countries have done something similar.

Meanwhile, Congress has already termed Manish's remarks about the Agnipath scheme as his personal opinion and not the party's stand. Will Congress suspend or expel Manish Tewari. But as per ANI sources, suspension of Manish is also being discussed but disciplinary action may also be considered for not toeing the party line. If he is expelled from the party then all he will continue to remain as a Member of Parliament. Therefore, the suspension seems a better decision to keep him trapped, stated a party source.

Tewari has been a member of the G23 grouping of the Congress which had sought organisational overhaul and has been critical of some of the decisions of the party leadership.

He is a former union minister and is currently a Lok Sabha member representing the Anandpur Sahib constituency in Punjab.