Agnipath: A Mid-Course Look

Some two years ago, the government announced the launch of the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the Armed Forces. Despite an outcry from both veterans as well as the young aspirants, the scheme was bulldozed through, while the wise men in the Services Headquarters quietly sat back, sang praises of the “brilliant idea” and accepted the diktat meekly, rather than talking tough to a political and bureaucratic nexus that had little or no knowledge of matters military. Literally, Neros fiddled while Rome burned.

A year has passed, and the process has swung into action. Public relations honchos from the government as well as the Armed Forces are going ballistic about the enthusiasm and professionalism of the passing-out Agniveers. Parents of Agniveers are being honoured for having “donated” their sons and daughters in the service of the nation. It’s all joy and laughter, but lurking behind the façade is a sense of apprehension, for as the well-known poem “Laugh and be Merry” by John Masefield says, “Laugh, for the time is brief, a thread the length of a span”.

Yes indeed, the time for most of the Agniveers is brief. Four years, to be precise. And then, the majority of them will turn in their weapons and their uniforms, and will step out into an unforgiving and unwelcoming world with a quickly depleting lump sum in their pockets and the slim hope that promises of jobs that had been made a few years back would now be fulfilled . They, who just a brief while ago had the world at their feet, suddenly have nowhere to go. And these suddenly unemployed, maybe even unemployable, men and women would be in the age bracket of 22 to 25 years. An age where life is just beginning will become the end of the road for many.

The enormity of this human issue has, very conveniently, been brushed under the carpet. Statements regarding retaining of 25 percent of the force at the end of the four-year tenure do not convey the true picture of what the country will be facing. Since visuals speak louder than words, the infographic below would provide a clearer picture of the situation.

The figures above display only a total of 192 Agniveers being recruited (the strength of the first batch). The actual planned figure for the current year was 46,000. It is thus left to the reader’s imagination to understand the enormity of the problem, a problem that will continue every year thereafter. The Indian Armed Forces, the pride of the Nation, will be faced with the dubious distinction of becoming the country’s largest unemployment generator. In the process, every year they will be replacing a large number of trained soldiers with a bunch of raw recruits.  This defies logic! To draw an analogy, imagine selecting young athletes immediately after an Olympics Games are over, training them for the next four years, and then throwing them out just as the next Games are about to begin.

Now let us consider another very disturbing aspect. The strength of the Armed Forces has always been based on the feeling of brotherhood, the comradeship, the willingness to die for one’s buddy. This spirit, which is unique to the Armed Forces, is developed from the day that a young lad enters the portals of the military establishment. Its foundation lies in the sense of mutual trust and faith, and the confidence in one’s brothers-in-arms, the confidence that his back will always be covered. Has anyone stopped to consider the impact that Agnipath will have on this spirit, this battle- winning factor? Now, when four young men enter into service with the knowledge that only one of them will eventually be retained, they become competitors, not brothers.  This will be the first step towards a rat-race that will eventually devastate the Armed Forces. It will lead to boot licking, back-biting and the utter unwillingness to take any risks that may show the individual in a bad light. And no one who is in a position to care, really cares. Simply because they would have retired before the effects begin to manifest themselves four years hence.

Another issue that remains shrouded in mystery is the method that will be adopted to select the lucky 25 percent from each batch. There is a need to clear the air, and one way to do that would be to critically analyze the statement made by the then Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen BS Raju. According to him, “the Agniveers would be assessed through four years on multiple objective and subjective parameters before a final merit list is drawn for their selection as permanent soldiers.” To keep the process transparent, he had said that “all the performance-related data will be collected and uploaded into the system, without any human intervention, and that Agniveers will be counselled and will be given performance reviews during their training period.”

Additionally, according to published reports, a government source said the Agniveers will also be assessed on various “soldierly qualities” such as loyalty, integrity, camaraderie, responsiveness, and responsibility. “There would be additional weightage for those who are outstanding sportsmen, gallantry awardees or in instances of them suffering injuries in operations, while there could be negative marks for poor discipline or punishments under the service acts.”

There is no doubt that these statements are based on the advice of management gurus who have, in recent times, made inroads into the defence forces and are slowly but surely inducting corporate management techniques into the military. Where this will eventually lead to is anyone’s guess.

The problem in the methodology prescribed above is that the Army is not a level playing field. Troops are serving in different Arms and Services, in differing terrain and weather conditions, in peace and in field stations, in active combat situations and CI operations, in India or in UN missions abroad, and so on. So how does one really decide on a merit list to retain 25 percent and evict the remainder?

Coming back to the financial aspects of the scheme, it has constantly been emphasized that the released Agniveer will exit with a “huge” sum of Rupees 10.04 lakhs (excluding accrued interest). What is conveniently, and consistently, glossed over is the fact that Rupees 5.02 lakhs or 50 percent of this amount is the Agniveer’s own monthly contribution, thereby making this an exact equivalent of the Employee Provident Scheme in the civilian world. Gratuity has also been denied since to be eligible for gratuity under the Gratuity Act, an employee needs to have at least five full years of service with the current employer, except in the event that an employee passes away or is rendered disabled due to accident or illness. By fixing the tenure at four years, this payment has also been avoided.

Conclusion

The thoughts elaborated upon here are based merely on an examination of open-source information. No feedback is available on the on-ground efficiency of the Agniveers, and it is still too early to comment on the post-service conditions of those who will get released. Some may consider this to be a very pessimistic view, and time may actually prove them to be right. Let us continue to wait and watch, and hope, for the sake of the nation and its Armed Forces, that the scheme delivers all that it has promised.