Give Agnipath Scheme A Chance – OpEd

Though discovered and postulated as a physical law by Sir Isaac Newton in 1687, opposition to change is a law of nature that extends to human thinking too. The dilemma of handling powerful emotions associated with change has aptly been described by the following lines written by eminent American poet Robert Frost-“Ah, when to the heart of man/ Was it ever less than a treason/ To go with the drift of things/ To yield with a grace to reason.”

Having been subjected to unprovoked aggression by both its Eastern and Western neighbours, imperatives of ensuring territorial integrity makes maintaining a credible deterrent capability in the form of strong defence forces an inescapable requirement for India. However, maintaining a large standing defence force has its own problems, both at the national and service headquarters levels.

To ensure optimum operational efficiency, defence forces require maintaining a young age profile and this means that its rank and file superannuate early. At the same time, there’s also a need to reduce burden on the national exchequer and defence budget by lowering the pension bill so that requisite funds are available for government projects as well as capability enhancement and modernisation of the weapon and warlike equipment inventories.

To address both these issues, the Government of India has introduced the Agnipath recruitment system. Under this scheme, the selected Agniveers will, after undergoing a somewhat abridged training regimen, serve for a period of four years, and on conclusion of this service period, only 25 percent of the enrolled Agniveers will be retained. This will ensure that while the armed forces have a young age profile, payment of a severance financial package in lieu of regular pension to those not retained would result in substantial savings.

Any initiative that is unique and has no previous precedent is bound to have rough edges and Agnipath scheme is no exception. Therefore, this little more than one-and-a- half year old initiative may be having its own set of teething problems. However, it wouldn’t be presumptuous to mention that a major part of the opposition to this new recruitment scheme can be attributed to instinctive human response to a quantum change of the status quo.

For example, the Agnipath scheme has drawn flak from many veterans, and the underlying reason for this is perceived dilution of regimentation, which is the cornerstone of motivation- the battle winning 'weapon' of the Indian armed forces. While this argument does have merit, the inference that motivation is solely dependent upon, and is proportional to the period of service may be a bit far-fetched. Similarly, the large number of applicants keen to be selected as Agniveers belies the view that this scheme is immensely unpopular due to its terms and conditions of truncated service.

Politicking on Agnipath scheme has further vitiated the atmosphere since arousing public emotions through unsubstantiated allegations have banished reasoning to the backburner. It needs to be remembered that Indian armed forces are no monoliths but dynamic organisations in which detailed analysis, meticulous evaluation and midcourse corrections to enhance efficiency are regular features that play a very important role and are religiously followed.

A case in point is the five-year short service commission that was first extended to 10 years and then 14 years! Similarly, in 2017, the Indian army carried out the third cadre review of JCOs and NCOs that not made very material changes in functioning of units but also benefited more than 1.45 lac junior commissioned officers and other ranks.

So, it would be completely unfair to assume that the Angipath scheme would be excluded from internal scrutiny by the armed forces. In fact, there are credible reports that an impact assessment exercise of this scheme is already underway in which the key stakeholders- the Agniveers themselves, their trainers as well as commanding officers [Cos] and sub-unit commanders under whom Agniveers are physically serving.

While Agniveers will provide inputs regarding their personal aspirations and apprehensions, their trainers will furnish quantifiable data and broad-based assessment of the physical and mental standards achieved by Agnivers during training. Being the ones under whom Agniveers are directly functioning, COs and sub-unit commanders will be able to provide accurate details on the professional competence and motivation level of Agniveers based on their performance under trying conditions. All stake holders being in the loop will facilitate comprehensive analysis of the Agnipath scheme.

One of the points against Agnipath is that since the tenure of 75 percent of those recruited will only be four years, this scheme will adversely affect the already serious unemployment problem bedeviling India. Here it needs to be clarified that the defence forces are meant to preserve India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity not act as welfare oriented employment providing agencies and hence their organisational interests cannot be compromised on the altar of populism.

Furthermore, according to Global Firepower [GFP] Index 2024, India has the population of 139,17, 9585 while the strength of its armed forces is estimated to be 14,55,550. From this it emerges that the Indian defence forces are providing employment to a mere 0.1 percent of the country’s population, and this clearly indicates that portraying Agnipath as a scheme that will cause humongous unemployment is a misconception born out of ignorance.

Therefore, it’s necessary to give the Agnipath scheme reasonable time so that its efficacy can be accurately gauged through regular monitoring and after appropriate mid-course corrections have been instituted to enhance its effectiveness. Outrightly rejecting this scheme by letting emotions and apprehensions override rational thinking or for the purpose of scoring political brownie points is, to say the least, being very, very unfair!