As Agnipath protests spread, govt offers compromise and Oppn wants talks

As violence and protests against the Centre’s Agnipath scheme continued unabated on Friday, despite a minor “compromise” offered by the government in the form of a one-time two-year increase in the eligibility age of recruitment, Opposition parties said the government needed to call a special session of Parliament and meetings of the Defence Consultative Committee for more extensive discussions.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President J P Nadda, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah came in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “transformative” scheme and the compromise “that showed PM Modi cared for the youth”, suggesting that the government had walked the extra mile and would not be accommodative hereafter.

But, violence, mayhem and