As a result of post-election compulsions, the Agnipath/Agniveer issue has suddenly emerged again and has led to a renewed round of arguments and counter-arguments, especially amongst veterans. In all this clamour, however, nothing new seems to have emerged. The argument is still centred mainly on two issues, curtailing the pension budget and ensuring a younger profile in the Armed Forces. Compromise with professionalism is trailing in third position and the human angle, the eventual fate of the discharged Agniveers, does not seem to count at all.
Amidst all this noise, our naivety has led us to miss an extremely important factor that will eventually decide the fate of this scheme and the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men and women. It is something that we need to understand very clearly and accept as a fait accompli because the truth is that what we think, does not count. And political survival and face-saving will remain the first priority for the government.
What has led me to this conclusion? Just see the turn of events in the last few days. The PM has to reach out to other parties to garner the requisite numbers to form the government. One of these parties immediately makes it known that it will demand a review of the Agnipath scheme. In the meantime, the united opposition has already made it clear that they are in favour of scrapping the scheme in its entirety. The nation’s youth are already up in arms against this. But for the government, succumbing to all these groups would be a loss of face that goes against their tough guy image.
So what do they do? The mandarins in South Block huddle together and pull out the ultimate rabbit from the magician’s hat. Let the Services bell the cat! Nobody will dare question the Armed Forces, would they? So, while these political imperatives were kept at a comparatively low-key, the Services very conveniently chose this time to “conduct an internal assessment of the scheme and will likely submit its findings to the government.” It does not seem to have occurred to the veteran fraternity to ask, “Why now? Why not earlier, before it was announced for implementation?”
Parallel with this, the Government has announced the formation of a group of secretaries, comprising of secretaries from ten key ministries who will “review the Agnipath scheme and suggest ways to make the armed forces recruitment programme more attractive.” I am not aware of which ministries are being represented, but one thing is evident. A group of bureaucrats is going to decide what is best for the Armed Forces, and the latter will be quietly advised to fall in line with these recommendations.
I will not discuss the pros and cons of the scheme here, since the same has been flogged enough already. However, before the Government arrives at any final decision, I would like to draw the attention of all involved stakeholders to the similarity of this scheme and the announcement and implementation of demonetization. In both cases, a radical scheme, literally forced down the throats of the people with little or no thought given to the possible fallout and its effect on the lives and the livelihood of the affected citizenry. The very need for mid-course review and corrections clearly indicates that inadequate thought has been given during the planning stages.
The inadequacy of planning, forethought and preparation is very evident from the words of Lt Gen Ajai Singh in his article “Unwrapping the Agnipath Enigma”. He says “As already stated by the Hon’ble RM, some issues can and will be tweaked as we go along with due feedback received. And there is adequate time for that, since the first batch of 18,888 Agniveers inducted in Jan 23 and the second batch of 20,920 in Mar 23, will come up for their 4-year tenure end/ extension only in Jan 2027.” What could be a clearer admission of the fact that the whole issue has been pushed through in a hurry without considering all the ramifications.”
I do have a wish list for all those who are even now reviewing the scheme, and for the Services to stand firm on. I wish and hope:
· That they realize that the Indian context is not the same as USA, Israel, France, Italy, Russia, Ukraine et al. Don’t use their military, their equipment, their strategy, as a model for our own use. Draw lessons from them, but don’t adopt them blindly.
· That they realize that merely increasing the percentage of retention of Agniveers will not resolve any of the issues of financial savings, experience, dedication or brotherhood.
· That they realize that national security is ensured by soldiers, not by politicians, judges or bureaucrats, and certainly not by prime time TV anchors and their domesticated “defence experts”.
· That they realize that security costs money and there is no getting away from that. The only infallible way to reduce costs on military expenditure is to improve our relationship with our neighbours. That falls within the domain of good politics and diplomacy, not military belligerence. If our politicians and bureaucrats continue to believe in tough posturing, then they should not grudge the soldier his financial dues.
· That they realize that the very term “Agniveer” is childish and carries an undertone of derision, creating an unnecessary difference between a regular soldier and a semi-trained, sub-standard recruit.
· That they realize that this subject must be tackled with sensitivity and a clear understanding of military needs, and not consider its retention as a prestige issue.
In the meantime, let us just wait, watch and hope for the best.
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