FIRE, ALARM

Aspirants and veterans are not convinced that the Agnipath scheme will work

- PRADIP R. SAGAR

The Indian military has been fighting four enemies-the Chinese and the Pakistanis outside; and an ageing soldiery, and rising pay and pension bills within. To tackle the latter two, on June 14, the government announced the Agnipath scheme, or tour of duty. Under this, youth would be recruited between the ages of 17 and a half and 21, be trained for six months and be allowed to serve anywhere from Siachen to Secunderabad. After four years, though, three-fourth of them would be packed off with cheques for ₹11.71 lakh each, and whatever balance they had saved from their pay. Once out of the Army, they would not get any of the perks today's veterans get.

The government quickly moved to pacify the first group. A two-year relaxation of the upper age limit was announced for those who missed the call in the past two years. The government also promised quotas for demobbed Agniveers in the paramilitary and in civil jobs in the defence ministry and its PSUS. The offers clicked; protests died down. The veterans, however, are still divided over the efficacy of the scheme.

Actually, there is nothing new in the Agnipath idea, except the nomenclature. The soldier has been ageing ever since the military extended colour service in the 1970s. The problem got aggravated in the early 1990s when those recruited in the 1970s were still found to be serving at 37 and 38, bringing the average age to above 30. "The Kargil Review Committee and the Arun Singh Committee had raised objections on the average age of soldiers, which was in the 30s, during the Kargil war; it is 32 currently," said Lt Gen Anil Puri, additional secretary in the department of military affairs.