No, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh did not announce scrapping of the Agnipath scheme - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 11, 2022
A social media post accompanying a purported video, which appears to be a breaking news snippet of an unnamed news report is being widely shared. The purported video claims that after chairing a meeting, Union Minister Rajnath Singh has decided to conduct the future army recruitments through the previous approach and not via Agnipath scheme. Through this article, let’s fact-check the authenticity of the viral video and the claim made in the post.
Claim: Union Minister Rajnath Singh has decided to conduct the future army recruitments through the previous approach and not via Agnipath scheme -TV breaking news.
Fact: Defence minister Rajnath Singh did not announce any such decision about future army recruitments to be done through previous recruitment approach. Currently, army recruitments are being done through the Agnipath scheme. In fact, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to brief the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of Defence on the issue of new Agnipath recruitment scheme on 11 July 2022. Further, no popular new channel reported any news as claimed in the viral video. The viral news clip is created digitally. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Lately, the central government did not take any decision scrapping the Agnipath scheme and also there are no reports about future recruitments to be organised through the previous approach. The central government has in fact issued a recruitment notification under the Agnipath scheme and the recruitment process is underway.
Also, we could not find any popular news video report with claims in line with the one posted in the viral post. If the central government had indeed decided to scrap the Agnipath scheme, media would have reported it. However, we could not find any such reports.
Most likely, the viral video is not an excerpt of any news report but is digitally created. Careful observation of the video suggests the same. Firstly, the viral video does not carry any logo or name of any channel. And secondly, the viral video wrongly reported Defence minister Rajnath Singh as Home Minister of the country, a media agency making such mistakes is highly unlikely.
Further, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh did not hold any meeting regarding the Agnipath scheme in recent times. It’s been at least three weeks since he chaired any meeting related to the Agnipath scheme. On 18 June 2022, following the widespread protests against the scheme, Rajnath Singh chaired a meeting with the three service chiefs.
It is note worthy to mention that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to brief the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of Defence on the issue of new Agnipath recruitment scheme on 11 July 2022.
To sum it up, Defence Minister Rajanath Singh did not announce scrapping of the Agnipath scheme.