The Congress on Friday asked the Union government to immediately roll back the Agnipath recruitment scheme and said it should stop playing with national security and not thrust the youth into fire.

Appealing to the protesting youth not to resort to violence, Congress president Sonia Gandhi termed the defence recruitment scheme "directionless" and said her party will make efforts for its withdrawal.

Rahul Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have to accept the demand of the youth and roll back the Agnipath scheme, just as he had to do with the farm laws.

"I had said earlier also that the prime minister will have to withdraw the black farm laws. In the same manner, he will have to accept the demand of the youth of the country by becoming 'maafiveer' and take back the 'Agnipath' scheme," he said in a tweet in Hindi.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the government should not play with the country's security and should take back the scheme.

"You want to infiltrate the RSS into our forces. What is your intention? The situation in the country is a matter of concern. The government should stop playing with the country's security and should roll back the scheme immediately," he told reporters.

"The harm that demonetization did to the economy the new scheme (Agnipath) will do to our security forces," Khera alleged.

He recalled that during demonetisation the government changed rules around 60 times and the same happened during the hurried implementation of the GST.

Now again the same thing is happening. The government is making amendments to the Agnipath scheme, he said.

Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari said the government is offering "lollipops" by announcing concessions in the scheme, while Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar alleged the Union ministers were "trying to sell the scheme like salesmen".

Senior leader P Chidambaram said the piecemeal concessions to the Agnipath scheme announced by the government "prove our point that it was ill-thought and poorly conceived".

"In view of the massive opposition to the scheme, the proper course is to completely halt the scheme, put out the issues and hold wide consultations on the solutions.

"While the anger of the protesting youth is understandable, I would appeal to them to avoid violence and destruction of property. They should take the path of Mahatma Gandhi and they will succeed," Chidambaram said in a series of tweets.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "As always, it is important to understand the chronology even today... First farmer, then jawan. The next target is people's voice."

The Congress is questioning the need for bringing such a scheme and what is the reason for ending the age-old practice of regular recruitments in the armed forces, Kanhaiya Kumar said.

"The Agnipath scheme will thrust the youth of the country into the fire. The government should immediately take back this scheme and stop giving lollipops," he said.

"The ministers are talking about the youth getting Rs 20 lakh. Is it not the same language as the prime minister used to talk of crediting Rs 15 lakh into bank accounts. This Rs 20 lakh will also come in the same account as Rs 15 lakh. One needs to understand this mindset," Kumar said.

He claimed that 28 lakh posts are lying vacant in the Central government but no recruitment has been made.

On its official Twitter handle, the Congress posted, "Because of the anti-people decisions of the Modi government, neither the jawans of the country are safe, nor are the farmers. Is the country in safe hands?"