Centre’s latest tweaks to ease absorption of Agniveers into defence forces must factor in fiscal prudence without compromising on combat readiness or regimental spirit
The government’s decision to modify the short-term recruitment of military personnel under the Agnipath scheme amounts to a virtual rollback four years after its inception.
Under the original Agnipath scheme rolled out in June 2022, only 25 per cent of the new recruits or Agniveers were to be absorbed as regular soldiers, sailors and airmen based on merit after the completion of their four-year tenure.
Govt widens scope for Agniveers
Chief of Defence Staff, General NS Raja Subramani, on Wednesday (October 4), however, announced that the Union Cabinet has approved a second engagement period of another two years for the remaining 75 per cent of the first batch of Agniveers. These personnel were previously slated for discharge over the next two months with a lump-sum Seva Nidhi exit package of Rs 11.71 lakh, but without any pension and ex-servicemen benefits.
Following this extended six-year tenure, they will now also be offered enrolment as regular soldiers subject to their willingness and meeting selection criteria. “The Cabinet has created a pathway for absorption of all Agniveers into the defence forces,” the government said.
Much-needed boost to forces
The 14-lakh-strong armed forces will undoubtedly welcome this shift, pushing as they were for higher retention rates and longer tenures for Agniveers. For one, they are grappling with a manpower shortage of well over 2 lakh personnel at a time when the borders with both Pakistan and China remain fully active in a state of “no war, no peace”. China, in particular, continues to escalate tensions with its salami-slicing tactics in Arunachal Pradesh after eastern Ladakh.
Also read: Agnipath needs urgent correction to protect India and her armed forces
For another, the armed forces simply cannot afford to release the bulk of their new soldiers, sailors and airmen after only four years, just when they are gaining proficiency with advanced weaponry, platforms, communication systems and sensors. It typically takes seven to eight years to train and impart the requisite hands-on experience to military personnel to become fully combat-ready.
Strategic calculations
Political considerations, obviously, have also driven this pivot. The BJP-led NDA government has an eye firmly on the forthcoming assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, which are traditional catchment areas for military recruitment. The announcement of the original Agnipath scheme in 2022 sparked widespread backlash among youth and their families in these regions, and has since remained a contentious political issue.
Also read: Why Centre urging preference for ex-Agniveers in security jobs has triggered fear in Haryana
The government had touted the Agnipath scheme as “a landmark, transformative scheme” to lower the average age of soldiers from the existing 32 to 24-26 in six to seven years, while fostering a more tech-savvy military. In reality, the primary goal was to progressively slash the ballooning salary and pension bills, which together consume over half the annual defence budget, leaving relatively less for military modernisation and readiness.
Three reasons why scheme is flawed
While the strategic and fiscal objectives behind the Agnipath scheme were sound, especially given the financial strain imposed by the “one-rank, one-pension (OROP)” scheme from 2014-2015 onwards, its execution was ill-conceived and deeply flawed.
Take just three reasons. One, the scheme was not first tested through a pilot project. Instead, it was made mandatory across the board in the Army, Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Navy in one stroke.
Two, high turnover rates degrade combat effectiveness and operational efficiency in the long run. Modern-day warfare demands advanced technical skill sets as well as robust operational and tactical experience.
Also read: Agnipath scheme: What Agniveers can expect after four years
Three, it undermines the deep-rooted regimental spirit, cohesion, and camaraderie within battalions by creating two classes of soldiers. The Agniveers and the regular soldiers, the latter with higher salaries and leave as well as pensions and death benefits, despite both fighting from the same trenches with the same weapons. Prioritising individual competition over collective unity threatens the basic military ethos of “Naam, Namak and Nishaan” (battalion’s reputation, fidelity and ensign/colours).
A new, better avatar must emerge
The armed forces certainly need to become lean, mean and integrated fighting machines by drastically cutting down the non-operational flab in their ranks. They will also require a larger short-service cadre and a smaller permanent one in the long run, along with innovative strategies and a major induction of AI-enabled autonomous weapons and drone technologies, as demonstrated by recent conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine war, among other things.
Moreover, the creation of integrated theatre commands, instead of the existing single-service commands, is also urgently needed to build cost-effective, multi-domain fighting forces capable of handling the traditional domains of land, air and sea as well as the new ones of space and cyberspace. Indian armed forces, however, are still some distance away from achieving all these objectives.
Also read: Two years of Agnipath: Pros and cons as the scheme stands now
Now that the government has finally gone in for some much-needed course correction on the original Agnipath scheme after four years of stoutly defending it, a much better version of it is needed as part of the overall long-term structural military reforms that factor in fiscal prudence without compromising combat readiness.
(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the articles are of the author and do not reflect the views of The Federal.)
