Agnipath: Fighting ability of soldiers may get diluted

Agnipath, the Narendra Modi government’s new recruitment scheme for the armed forces, is a harebrained plot. Whoever is the author has no clue about the history of the Indian Army or its functioning. The chiefs of the Army, Air Force and Navy were drumbeating the scheme when defence minister Rajnath Singh addressed a press conference a few days ago.

It is not clear whether this scheme is an attempt to tinker with the time-tested regimental recruitment made on ethnic basis for most of the regiments like the Sikh, Gurkha, Dogra, Rajput et al. India and Pakistan have inherited the British system of maintaining the ethnic homogeneity and ethos of the troops recruited for infantry regiments. Pakistan has Punjab, Sindh, Baloch and Pathan regiments on the same pattern. According to the government, the recruits under this scheme will be called agniveers. It’s not clear how this new identity will merge into the existing infantry regiments working as a closeknit ethnic unit with common ethos based on their ethnicity.

Death knell for the infantry

There are a large number of troops recruited on all-class basis for service branches like the Army Medical Corps, Army Service Corps or Indian Army Corps of Signals etc. If it is an attempt to bring an all-class mixed army, then surely the fighting ability of the soldiers will get diluted when you face a cohesive army represented by the Punjab, Pathan or Sindh regiments. It will be a death knell for the infantry if soldiers are not fighting as Sikhs or Dogras or Rajputs or Gurkhas when it comes to combat in a do-or-die situation. Since there is no clarity on this issue, we leave it at that and come to the merits of the scheme.

How can anyone living in India not understand the reason why millions of our youth are interested in joining the armed forces? To be honest, the prime reason is a secure job with pension. The motivation related to patriotism comes later after training.

A half-baked idea

The Agnipath scheme is conceived as a half-baked idea to avoid pension to the recruits, not realising that three years of service before being discharged is as good as being a daily wage earner. The argument that the recruits will acquire skills in six-month training, which will enable them to become highly employable in other jobs after discharge from the army, is totally flawed. Even now the ex-servicemen who are available after 15 years experience find it difficult to get a job. There are no special skills that the ex-agniveers will acquire which are not available with millions of unemployed youth with qualifications ranging from degrees in technical education to information technology, but still not finding jobs.

Menial jobs after service

Assuming some of the agniveers manage to find jobs, it is again going to be low quality jobs like guards and delivery boys, without any security of service on a long-term basis. The job market in the country is driven by demand and supply, and agniveers will not be able to display skills of such a nature that are not available in the multitude of unemployed youth looking for jobs today.

The other argument in support of the Agnipath scheme that the age profile of the army jawans will change and a younger army is expected to be more efficient is misplaced and wrong. There is no difference between the fighting ability of a soldier in his 30s and or in his early 20s. In fact, worldwide the best fighting abilities have been displayed by soldiers in their 30s, which is a consequence of a right mix of age and experience. In the existing system, in about 15 years service, the jawan has had exposure to being trained in different parts of the country and is competent to fight in the deserts of Rajasthan or the mountains of Kashmir or Arunachal. The agniveers will not be able to match the fighting experience of the jawan who has spent 15 years learning in all parts of the country.

Penny wise, pound foolish

There is no data available to quantify the saving the government expects to make by way of not providing pension of new recruits. Whatever it be, this is being penny wise and pound foolish. The mistake of not understanding the history of the army and what makes a soldier die for his country will have disastrous consequences in the long run.

You can’t buy the loyalty of a soldier who is counting his days in the army and feeling insecure about his and his family’s future. It took the government more than a year to realise that the farmers were right in seeking repeal of farm laws, but allowed more than a year of agitation involving loss of lives as well as economic and other hardship for lakhs of people, before repealing the farm laws. In this case, there is no repeal of laws involved. It needs a mature reaction without any ego from the government to admit that a mistake has been made. Earlier done, better it will be for the entire country. If not done, the seeds of reducing the best fighting force to an ordinary third world army would have been sown.

HOW CAN ANYONE NOT UNDERSTAND THE REASON WHY YOUTH ARE INTERESTED IN JOINING THE ARMED FORCES? THE PRIME REASON IS A SECURE JOB WITH PENSION. THE MOTIVATION RELATED TO PATRIOTISM COMES LATER AFTER TRAINING