‘Is Karnataka offering 60-day army training to youths from minority communities?’

Chief Whip of Opposition in Legislative Council N. Ravi Kumar has urged Karnataka’s Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar to clarify as well as withdraw what he described as a ‘controversial and misleading’ advertisement issued by the Department of Minorities.

In a letter to the CM on November 11, Mr. Ravi Kumar said the advertisement mentions that the Department of Minorities will provide 60-day army training only to youths from minority communities. 

“The army does not offer religion-based training. There is no provision in the Constitution to provide religion-based army training,” he argued. 

He maintained that only the army could offer ‘army training’ to those who are selected through rigorous selection process and the government of Karnataka has no role to play either in the army training or in the selection process. “This advertisement is aimed at misleading gullible minority youths, and take them for a ride,“ Mr. Ravi Kumar alleged.