On June 13, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government announced the Agnipath Scheme. The Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated it along with the chiefs of all three defence forces – General Manoj Mukund Naravane (Indian Army), Admiral Karambir Singh (Indian Navy), and Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh (Indian Air Force).
Since its announcement, the scheme has made ripples throughout the country with many young men from India’s lower middle class and below poverty line backgrounds, who have been preparing for the recruitment day in and out, protesting in the streets against the scheme.
What is Agnipath Scheme?
According to the Central government, under the new scheme around 45,000 – 50,000 young men will be recruited every year. The ones selected will be known as ‘Agniveers’.
Agniveers will have a tenure of just four years. They will undergo intense training in the first six months and then be recruited into the chosen defence sector – army, navy, or airforce – and will serve the country for the next three and a half years.
The salary provided at the beginning will be Rs 30,000/- which will scale up to Rs 40,000/- at the end of the fourth year.
Once the four years are over, only 25% of Agniveers will be retained and given permanent employment in the defence for the next 15 years. The remaining 75% will be sent back to civil society. The government will provide a tax-free lump sum amount of Rs 11.71 lakhs to those who will be let go. They will also get life insurance for four years of Rs 48 lakhs. In case of death, the government will pay over Rs 1 crore.
However, for those who are given permanent employment, their Agnipath tenure will not be counted for retirement benefits.
Up until Friday the recruitment age was from 17.5 years to 21 years. On June 17 (Saturday), the Union Defense Ministry extended the age from 17.5 years to 23 years of age.
Benefits of Agnipath
On June 14, the Defense Minister tweeted on his official Twitter page:
While announcing the scheme, he stated, “efforts are being made that the profile of the Armed Forces should be as youthful as the wider Indian population.”
The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that the scheme will lead to a high-skilled workforce that will in turn give a “kick” to the productivity gain and overall GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in the Indian economy.
This will considerably reduce the defence pension bill, which has been a major concern for governments for many years.
According to Lt Gen Anil Puri, additional secretary, Department of Military Affairs, the scheme will create “future-ready” soldiers and the government will rehabilitate those who would leave the forces at the end of four years by providing skill certificates and bridge courses.
Lt General B S Raju told the media that the new scheme is designed to revitalize the defence forces into a much “younger, fitter and tech-savy”.
Concerns voiced by protestors:
Ever since the scheme was announced, it has raised many questions that have remained unanswered by the government. One of the major questions that arise is what happens next after four years are completed? What will happen to those who were not fortunate enough to be retained? What about their future?
Earlier a soldier was guaranteed job security for 15 years. After retirement, he and his family would enjoy the comfort of a good pension and access to subsidized healthcare. Agnipath will stop all this.
Many retired defence officers have raised serious concerns regarding this scheme. Retired Major General G D Bakshi (who is also a strong supporter of the BJP) tweeted that the scheme can be detrimental to the Indian Army.
Another retired officer, Lt General Vinod Bhatia called the scheme a ‘death knell’ to the nation’s defence system.
Another senior Army officer, Maj Gen Yash Mor tweeted, “Stop looking at armed forces from an economic point of view. Military life and career can’t be evaluated from money saved to the exchequer. Looking to be difficult-to-implement scheme, with negative connotations in all aspects.”
The best example was perhaps given by Gurdeep Singh Sappal, national spokesperson, INC. In his long tweet, the Congressman highlighted the era of partition and the role of retired British Raj soldiers who were left behind after August 1947.
He expressed that during the 1947 partition, which lead to the death of millions of Hindus and Muslims from both sides, how could there be such large scales deaths.
He said that it was not “normal” for common people to kill scores of people.
British Indian Army had nearly 2.5 million soldiers after the war, of which it retired 2 million. These were young men, war-hardened, skilled in using weapons, who had lived through the worst. They were back in villages in 1947. Did it contribute to a high number of killings?”
He went on to add, “Having a large number of army trained but unemployed youth, in the early ’20s is never a comforting thought. Has the GoI thought through the repercussions and social impact of the Agnipath scheme? Has any historical, sociological data been studied before embarking upon this scheme?”
Political analyst and journalist Aditya Menon tweeted that Agfbnipath will result in the Armed forces will be stuck with a bunch of semi-trained personnel not ready for battle.
“But what does the army gain out of it? The resources and time invested in training Agniveers could have gone into the recruitment and training of full-time soldiers. Just to save pension and to have a cohort of semi-military trained manpower, professionalism of forces is being compromised,” Menon tweeted.
Relations with Nepal
Retired Lt General Tej Sapru, who comes from a Gorkha background felt that the new scheme can cause a spoilsport in the Indo-Nepal relationships. He pointed out that if the relationship is soured, it can be beneficial for China.
“The Indian Army soldiers of Nepalese domicile are a major function of Nepalese economy by way of their pay and pension. They are also vital ambassadors of India down in the villages where they live. This is one reason why the Chinese have not been able to make many inroads into Nepalese society. To cut down their intake by all class recruitment and then by reducing the years of service, a major change in Nepal-India relations could occur,” he said.
Youth protests across the country
The scheme announcement has created shockwaves across the nation with many young men from Bihar, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Gurugram, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh violently protesting by damaging the public property, stone-pelting and at some places facing the ire of police through lathi-charge.
In Telangana’s capital Hyderabad, individuals protested at the Secundrabad Railway station by burning vehicles, damaging the station properties, and creating railway track blocks. One person was killed when the Railway Police started shooting at the protestors. Two policemen were also injured.
Meanwhile, Rajnath Singh has appealed for peace and requested the protesting youth to rather focus on their preparation which will commence in 90 days, and refrain from participating in violent protests.
Updates on Agnipath
The Agnipath protests do not seem to settle down anytime soon. Sensing this, the Government of India have come up with certain relaxation in order to calm the protestors.
On June 16, the Centre announced that after the completion of four years, the Agniveers who are told to leave after four years will have a 10% reservation in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), Assam Rifles and police as well as allied forces in several states. According to the government, an Agniveer will be given first priority in the selection process.
The upper age limit for the first batch of Agniveers has been extended from 21 years of age to 23.
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