NSA: No question of Agnipath’s rollback
HT Correspondent
NEW DELHI: The new Agnipath military recruitment scheme has been introduced after much deliberation, and the government will not roll it back, national security adviser Ajit Doval said on Tuesday in the wake of widespread protests by defence aspirants.
“There is no question of a rollback,” Doval said in an interview to news agency ANI. “This is not a knee-jerk reaction that has come overnight but has been debated and discussed over decades.”
Several committees have suggested lowering the average age of India’s armed forces, Doval said. “In the 1970s, we had committees that talked about reorganisation and reforming the army, including the usage of manpower, technology and others,” he said.
The Centre’s new defence enlistment policy has met with vehement protests across the country. The Opposition has demanded that the scheme be withdrawn. The new policy will have recruits work in the armed forces for four years, after which 25% of them will be retained for longer service.
Countering the opposition to the new scheme, Doval said there was a need to look at it in the proper perspective.
“Agnipath isn’t a stand-alone scheme in itself. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, one of his prime priorities was how to make India secure and strong,” he said. “That required many avenues, many steps, multitude of them.”
He credited Modi with the will to usher in a big reform that could have political repercussions. “It was the political will,” Doval said. “Who will dare getting into it at bringing about the change? It can happen only with a leader like Prime Minister Modi, who will say if this is in national interest, then no risk is big enough and no cost is high enough. Even if it is a political cost, I will pay it, because he visualizes what happens to the Indian army 15 years from now.”
The changes in recruitment were necessary to meet newer challenges, including how wars are now waged. “We are going toward contactless wars, and also going towards the war against the invisible enemy. Technology is taking over at a rapid pace,” Doval said. “If we have to prepare for tomorrow, then we have to change.”
In response to concerns that short-term recruitment will impact the quality of the armed forces, Doval said only Agniveers, as the new recruits will be called, will not constitute the army. “Those Agniveers who become regulars eventually will undergo intensive training, acquire experience over a period of time,” he said.
The policy will not affect the current regimental system of the army, he clarified.
“The concept of regiments, nobody is tinkering with it. If there are regiments, then there will be regiments of artillery, electrical or mechanical engineers or mechanical engineers,” he said. “They (regiments) will continue. The regimental system has not ended.”
Tracing the history of the regimental system in India, Doval said, “There is confusion among some sections of people about some units of infantry. There are only a few caste-based regiments left, only two or three, and this is a colonial legacy. The British wanted that nothing should be pan-india. They wanted to divide the people into sections so that they represent particular areas or sects so that there was no national perspective left among the soldiers. Otherwise, there would have been a threat to their colonial empire.”
In the wake of protests, the government has started a massive outreach to counter the opposition to Agnipath, and dubbed the protests as the handiwork of the opposition.
Doval endorsed the view that the protests are motivated. While he underlined that vandalism and violence in the name of protest was not permitted and will not be tolerated, he said a thorough investigation must be conducted to identify the forces behind the violent protests that erupted across several states. “My message to the youth who want to become Agniveers is that be positive, have faith in the nation, in the leadership and also in yourself,” he said.
On fears that Agniveers released from service could become a threat to society, he said, “It’s totally invalid. I can tell if there’s any guarantee in the society to keep peace and stability, it’ll be the civilian population that has to become law-abiding.”
On India-pakistan ties, Doval said India cannot have peace or war at the choice of adversary. “If we’ve to protect our interests, then we will decide when and with whom and on what terms we will have peace,” he said. “We have good relations with our neighbours, including Pakistan. We would like to have normal relations with Pakistan, but certainly the tolerance threshold for terrorism is very low.”
On the recent attacks against Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir, Doval said they are a vulnerable section that needs protection. Although the government has taken various steps, much more had to be done. “No government will be able to give individual protection, but the best thing we can do it to go on the offensive against the terrorists,” he said.