Agnipath: A Step in Right Direction

Recently announced Agnipath scheme by the Government of India to recruit the soldiers for a period of 4 years has come in controversies where many people are supporting it and many are against it. There have been clouds of confusion in the minds of the youth preparing to join the Armed Forces of India and also the senior veterans of the Armed Forces.

To look at the scheme whether it is good or not for the country’s armed forces or not, we will need to look into the facts which the Government and the Defence ministry has presented while announcing the scheme. The Agnipath scheme was announced by the government on 14 June 2022. The scheme has provisions to recruit a soldier for 4 years and then retain the 25% of them after 4 years of service. The reason why Indian Armed Forces are bringing this into action is because in the current scenario, the average age of the Indian Armed Forces is 32-33; which is not good for any army not just Indian Army. So, by implementing this scheme the Indian armed forces plan to bring the average age of the forces to 25-26 which is the need of the hour.

Another reason we need to see is that the defence budget of India in 2021 was USD 76.6 billion. A major chunk of the defence budget of India is being spent on the salaries and pension, if we go deeper and see then we will see that pensions are taking a greater percentage than salaries and allowances in that chunk. The expenditure on salaries and pension is taking up the major chunk due to which the armed forces are left with a very less budget to modernise the forces and buy the new technology and weapons. As the times are changing the warfare domain and techniques are also changing. The times have gone when the conventional warfare was the only threat to any state from its adversaries. Domain like biological warfare and cyber warfare are also coming up in the scenario which makes us think twice about our military preparedness. Also, if we see the conventional warfare, the scale at which the wars used to happen and can happen in the future is far different.

The wars that will happen in the future will be lethal because the weapons and technology is advancing day by day. The future wars will be depended on how advance technology and weapon countries have. Nuclear submarines, Ballistic missiles, Intercontinental missiles, Stealth fighter aircrafts and many other technologies like these will be the important factors in deciding the victory of any country. Now coming to India if we analyse the security challenges, the situation is not very cordial with us. We are a facing a two front war threat with neighbours like China and Pakistan with whom we don’t share a good past and even the present. In such scenario where you have a not so friendly neighbours and this a threat of two front war every moment on your nation, having a good defence is not an ambition but a need so that we can counter them whenever needed.

The introduction of the agnipath scheme is solution of both the issues of the country. It will help in reducing the pension burden of the armed forces as well as the average age issue which is around 32-33 years. The issue because of which there are protests happening in the nation are that firstly the youth of the country do not feel secure with this scheme because of removal of 75% of the soldiers after 4 years and secondly many veterans feel that introducing this will hamper the operational capability of the soldiers and will not make a seasoned soldier. We as a nation will have to ensure that our youth does not feel insecure after his/her removal from the armed forces and that he gets as alternative after he leaves the armed forces after 4 years of service. We will need to make certain provisions for them so that when they leave the armed forces, they don’t feel that government has not done justice to them.

We will need to make more provisions like the 10% quota for the soldiers leaving the armed forces. Also, the states as well as the corporate companies should also take the responsibility to make some provisions like this so that it brings some hope in the minds of the youth. As far as the question of experienced soldier comes into the picture, we will need to see that all the soldiers are not being removed from the forces. The remaining 25% soldiers from each batch will go on for the advanced training in their respective weapon systems and regiments. The service chiefs of all the three forces have said time and again that all the changes in the recruitment system is done after evaluating every scenario, so we need to show faith on them that the decision of agnipath will be beneficial for the youth of the nation as well for the security scenario of the nation. In the end we should not forget that the courage to face the adversaries does not come only from age and experience.

India as a nation have many examples of the exceptional valour shown by the soldiers and the officers of our forces. India is land who has produced patriots like Vikram Batra who laid down his life and showed the utmost bravery at the age just 24 and later on received the PVC for the valour shown, we have soldiers like Yogendra Singh Yadav who received the PVC at the raw of age of 19 years because of the courage shown and facing the enemy even after taking 12 bullets. These are just two names and there are many like them who have stood strong and tall in every situation and proved their metal. So, we as a nation must have faith on our armed forces.