On Wednesday, July 20, the Ministry of Home Affairs informed Rajya Sabha that the 10% reservation for recruits under the Agnipath Scheme in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) or the paramilitary will apply horizontally. The new reservation will fit horizontally alongside the existing caste-based quota and physical eligibility requirements in the CAPFs. However, Indian Express used this answer to spread another fake news about the scheme.
In its article published on July 21, Indian Express claimed that reservation is applicable in ‘Agnipath’ scheme too, like other services. However, the minister’s response clearly mentions that this is not the case.
Further, the minister in his written reply has mentioned the existing reservation structure of the CAPF, along with which, the reservation for ex-Agniveers will fit. However, that caste-based reservation is not for the Agniveer scheme.
In its report, Indian Express went on to make the fake claim that 15 percent of seats in the ‘Agnipath’ scheme are reserved for candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) category, 7.5 percent for Scheduled Tribe (ST), and 27 percent for those from Other Backward Classes (OBC).
It must be noted that caste-based reservations were never applicable in defence forces- army, navy, and air force- and even Agnipath scheme doesn’t change that. However, recruitment in Central Armed Police Forces always had the provision for reservations, and the minister’s reply reiterates the same. However, the Indian Express report mentions that the reservation which was for CAPFs, is actually for the Agnipath scheme, which is totally opposite to what the minister’s reply actually said.
It is also notable that the reply was from the home ministry because the matter was related to CAPFs. Indian Express should have known that Home Ministry will not comment on recruitment in the Agniveer scheme, which is under the Defence Ministry.
Agnipath scheme was launched last month by the Indian government and has been the target of several fake news and motivated allegations since then.
Indian Express changes article
It is notable here that after the OpIndia fact-check, Indian Express has changed its earlier article that provided false and misleading information. The updated version of the article has a new headline, “Govt gives in-principle approval for 10 pc quota for Agniveers in CAPFs”. The earlier claims that there are caste-based reservations in the Agnipath scheme have been corrected too, to add that the reservations are applicable for CAPF recruitments.
