Introduction
There is a shortage of manpower in the Armed Forces. There is no shortage of people who want to join the Armed Forces. We need to match the two. The aim should be to fill all the vacancies and still have aspirants.
Core Issue
The reason for initiating the Agniveer scheme is that the Govt wants to reduce the pension budget which in the view of a few is nonproductive expenditure. Unfortunately, this scheme has an unintended impact on future military preparedness, besides the social unrest it created due to loss of an opportunity for a stable Govt job. The attractions of a job in the Armed Forces are; a stable job for a long duration of minimum 15 years, pensionable job, medical facilities, corruption free environment, natural justice, secularism, where professionalism pays, camaraderie irrespective of the differences we find in civil society in terms of caste, religion etc. The Agnipath scheme demolishes many of these. Agniveers devoid of such benefits do not fit into the philosophy of a cohesive fighting unit. Solution to the pension problem needs to be financial without impacting the fighting ability of the Armed Forces.
Pensions
Pensions for Armed Forces and for civilians working with Defence establishments is a part of the Defence Budget and is paid out of the Defence Services Estimates of the Union Budget. This eats into the money available for modernization of the Armed Forces. This link needs to be severed and they should be brought under a different head, may be Central Govt pensions. Pension is defferred salary and it cannot be denied as per the SC. In the present scheme of life time pension, half the salary paid to the individual is catered for his pension. Typically, a person works until 60 (30-40 years of service) and is expected to live for another 15 years. If that is done from the soldier’s date of enrolment, but paid in to the National Pension Scheme (NPS) then the Govt doesn’t have to look at life time pension. Even if he does not have the qualifying service, he still has something to fall back upon. The Civil Services and CAPFs have migrated to this except the IAS officers.
Tenure
As far as the tenure is concerned, the Armed Forces needs trained manpower and so the training period cannot be compromised. However, the termination is still in the hands of the Armed Forces so that those who are not willing to continue or underperformers can be weeded out at any time to maintain the youthful profile of the fighting units. They still get the accumulated amount in the NPS. There may be a view that training has gone waste, which is not true. He becomes a national asset and will contribute to the GDP. Every military role has a civil equivalent and he should be given the licence to practice his profession after he leaves without any further tests in the civil. This is relevant to Arms licence, motor vehicle drivers licence and almost all other trades. This will help in his resettlement and he can contribute to GDP.
Enhanced Training Infrastructure
Incidentally, this was the vision of Shri AB Vajpayee, when he was the PM. He wanted trained pilots to leave at their will to man civil airlines. The IAF was not prepared for the wastage. His retort was to open more Air Force Academies for which he will sanction the funds. They are national assets and we should not have disgruntled pilots in the IAF! We identified Raipur as an ideal location for No. 2 AFA. It did not take off.
The IAF JIT Scheme
Due to manpower shortage to enhance the number enrolled to thrice during the same period of 18 months, Just In Time (JIT) training was started. 6 months training, induct for manning to reduce workload of other technicians, gain experience and good ones will be sent for next level of 6 months and so on. Promotions were linked to the training. It was scrapped due to indiscipline, escapism saying not trained and concentration on civil services exams. IAF provided shelter, food and pay. Work was not important. IAFhad a tough time reversing it. Knowing this, why did we go for Agneepath is not clear.
Conclusion
If this is adopted as the MAS then those with 6 months training needs to complete their training and compete professionally to be retained. This will solve all the negative aspects of the scheme in it’s present form especially maintaining a motivated, young fighting force of the optimum size.
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