Trains cancelled as protests against military plan grow
CRITICS DEMAND REPEAL OF RECRUITMENT SCHEME WHILE SUPPORTERS HAIL ‘LONG-PENDING REFORM’
AUTHORITIES in India cancelled more than 500 train services on Monday (20) because of calls for protests by young men angry with a military recruitment plan that they say will rob them of the opportunity of a career in the armed forces.
Prime minister Narendra Modi’s government last week unveiled the plan called Agnipath, or “path of fire”, aimed at bringing more people into the military on short, four-year contracts to lower the average age of India’s 1.38 million-strong armed forces.
Analysts say the scheme will also help cut burgeoning pension costs.
But the protesters say it will deprive them of the opportunity of a permanent job in the military, and with it a guaranteed pension, other allowances and social status.
Leaders of the opposition Congress party met Indian president Ram Nath Kovind to seek withdrawal of the scheme.
“Given the situation on our borders, it is imperative that we have soldiers in our armed forces who are young, well-trained, motivated, happy, satisfied and assured of their future,” they told the president.
India shares often-tense borders with Pakistan and China.
But top defence officials said last Sunday (19) the plan was aimed at modernising the forces and would not be withdrawn. “Why should it be rolled back? This was a long-pending reform,” Lieutenant General Anil Puri, additional secretary in the defence ministry, told reporters in New Delhi.
His remarks came amid protests by many thousands of young men who have attacked and torched trains and clashed with police since last week. One person has been killed and police have arrested more than 300 protesters.
In Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state, a protester held a placard with the message “Boycott Agnipath” and demanded the plan be scrapped.
“I want the defence ministry to stop this experiment. I need a secure job and they have no right to offer temporary arrangements,” the young man told a television news channel.
Under the scheme, 46,000 cadets will be recruited this year on four-year terms and 25 per cent of them will be kept on after that. Hiring starts this month.
In a bid to end the protests, the government has adjusted parts of the plan to offer more soldiers federal and state government jobs after their service.
One policy analyst said a key part of the plan was aimed at reducing expenditure on pensions. “The Agnipath scheme will reduce the lifetime cost of manpower by several crore (tens of millions) rupees a head,” Nitin Pai, director of the Takshashila Institution centre for research on public policy, wrote in the Mint newspaper.
One of the biggest concerns is the fate of the soldiers after they finish their term, but Puri said the government will ensure those enrolled under the scheme find suitable jobs when they are discharged. He said anyone participating in violent protests would not qualify for the defence services under the scheme.
Last Sunday (19) the federal home ministry said it would reserve 10 per cent of vacancies in the paramilitary forces and the Assam Rifles, a unit in the Indian army, for those who have passed out of the army under the scheme. The defence ministry added that it would reserve 10 per cent of its vacancies for them.
“Perhaps because it is a new scheme, people have misunderstood it, but we have been discussing this with everyone, including ex-servicemen,” defence minister Rajnath Singh told a press conference last Saturday (18). (Reuters)