Stop messing with our military

It is the one institution the nation trusts; any efforts to tinker with its soul & ethos will certainly not go down well with the aspirants, the regulars or even the veterans

Thank the Almighty for minor mercies on Agniveer. After five days of avoidable all-India arson and damage (railways alone suffered losses of Rs 1,000 crore), the Government has backpedalled. Some concessions have been made to Agnipath Yojana: One-time age waiver (21 to 23 years); unwritten reservation in Government jobs; promises of public and private sector employment for demobilised Agniveers, and skilling and higher education schemes — in short, they’ve been promised the moon when it is a distant crescent. The anger among youth is understandable as many have passed physical and medical tests. For IAF, aspirants had cleared even written examinations but were not called up. The charade of COVID was used to suspend regular recruitment and replaced with Agnipath. The youth were cheated.

Now that Agnipath has become irreversible, the merit of the scheme as youthful infusion into an aging Army was marked by colossal criticism including masking the real reason for its imposition, ie reduction of salary and pension bills. Hundreds of veterans including Param Vir Chakra winner, Capt Bana Singh, denigrated the project. He tweeted: ‘save the country from Agnipath scheme as it would badly damage the youth’. Later, it seems he was forced to delete the tweet. Most former service Chiefs adopted maun vrat. Only former Naval Chief, Adm Arun Prakash, had the temerity to expose its infirmities. These days, it is dangerous to speak out or speak up lest you’re targeted by one or the other public/private agencies. Not many veterans detected or objected to forcing down All India All Class (AIAC) recruitment on single class/caste regiments. But those who did made passionate appeals to spare the high-value regimental system in the fighting arms.

In final briefings to media by Additional Secretary (Department of Military Affairs) Lt Gen Anil Puri and Vice Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen BS Raju, and NSA Ajit Doval allayed concerns about dismantling the regimental system. This seems to be one more concession by the Government after the uproar. Lt Gen Raju told newspapers that Agnipath is in fact a pilot project and in response to pleas that it should be test-bedded, he said in four years Agniveer would be tweaked. This means the four year-engagement could be increased and the number of re-enlisted could also be increased. The pay package offered to Agniveers is in fact less than what regular soldiers receive after enlistment. There are other anomalies, including severance package, which need to be scrutinised. Listening to youth on social media and TV, it is clear they cannot be duped as they are questioning all aspects of the project, including why not Agniveers for officers also?

In his briefing, Lt Gen Puri let the cat out of the bag.  He said: “In the last two years, we got an opportunity and we stopped the recruitment process.” So COVID was used as a pretext to stop recruitment when in fact Agnipath was being prepared. He also said: “The AIAC recruitment model will remain unchanged. 75 per cent of the Army is already AIAC except single-class regiments like Sikh, Dogra, Garhwal, Gorkha, Jat and the like. The regimentation (presumably meaning regimental system) will remain unchanged.”

Doval said: “The policy on the recruitment will not affect the current regimental system. The concept of regiments, nobody is tinkering with. The regimental system has not ended.” Doval insisted there will be no rollback of Agniveer. The good news is that a few single-class regiments which in 2032 will have 50 per cent Agniveer and 50 per cent regulars will continue and be exempt from AIAC. Doval is the highest-ranking Government official to confirm this and put worries of regimental diehards at rest.

In the future, when Agniveers are enlisted to full capacity of 125,000 annually and 100,000 will be demobilised, second careers will have to be found for the latter. Current assurances by all and sundry are unreliable. The problem is: Agniveers will not only be competing among themselves for re-enlistment, they will also be competing with fulltime regulars. Sporting their Agniveer badges (some are calling it a new rank?), singling out this group will create bad blood creating different types of soldiers. This is a bad idea and should be dropped.

As in the British military from whose sinews the Indian system is derived, a military covenant is necessary between soldiers and the nation. The country should commit to taking care of them and their families through thick and thin as they put their lives on the block. Will the Agniveers qualify for this as the regulars do? The biggest challenge for Agniveers is their effective integration into the military system and assimilation into combat units imbued with regimental ethos, tradition and motivation which underline the ultimate test on the battlefield.

Varun Gandhi is the only parliamentarian who is deriding the new scheme. One has not seen such an enormous upheaval against what is ostensibly a transformative defence reform. Agnipath Yojana requires a transformation to ensure defence of the realm is not compromised. Given the backlash to Agnipath, Government is unlikely to pick a CDS anytime soon. It has turned it into a modern swayamvar with 150 people in the contest.

(The writer, a retired Lt Gen, was Commander, IPKF South, Sri Lanka, and founder member of the Defence Planning Staff, currently the Integrated Defence Staff. The views expressed are personal.)

Source: PTI