ByMaj Gen (Dr) Ashok Kumar, VSM (Retd)
Agnipath scheme was launched in June 22 as the new system of recruitment for the entire defence forces not only in the country but also for the Nepalese Gurkhas who have been part of Army units as per agreement between India, Nepal and British at the time of Indian independence. It was mandatory for India to offer similar terms of service to the Nepalese citizens as applicable to the Indian soldiers. The revised scheme was therefore applicable to all without any discretion whatsoever. Nepal is yet to take a call to allow its citizens to participate in the recruitment process with Indian defence forces which is a separate issue altogether. Alternatives to these challenges are emerging to ensure that Indian Defence forces are operationally manned to the desired level.
Since the launch of the scheme, there has been an ongoing debate with respect to positives of the scheme as well as some of the shortcomings of the scheme. These opinions are based on the subjective views of the individuals based on their experiences/ interests. There is nothing wrong in debating a scheme for bringing out its positives as well as negatives so as to improve the scheme as no scheme could be possible without the future scope of the improvement. Indian Defence Forces are known to have the concept of mid course corrections as part of their evolving process and a similar approach gets applied to the Agnipath scheme as well. Government has already implemented certain changes since the launch of the scheme and it is natural to have this as an ongoing process.
The debate has been continuing more in recent past since the time Agniveer Amritpal Singh, resident of Punjab died on 11 Oct 23 in a forward post in Rajouri (J&K) by committing suicide. While the Army did all that what was possible in the case, it did not give a ‘guard of honour’ to the departed soul and this issue was flagged in social media and other platforms all over without knowing the fact that the ‘Guard of Honour’ is not entitled to the persons dying due to suicide or from the self inflicted injuries irrespective of the ‘rank’ of a person and there are no separate rules based on the rank structure . An Army Order of 1967 has been practiced religiously since then. Even if a General’ commits suicide in service, even he is not entitled to a ‘Guard of Honour’ and the Indian Army does not make any distinction. While an uniformed civilian may fall prey to such beliefs of all ranks being entitled to ‘Guard of Honour’ as majority death cases happen due to natural causes/ entitled conditions where he/she has seen these aspects happening and the same remains itched in their memory. These criticisms coming from some defence veterans is disturbing as they are supposed to honour and stand for the values of the defence forces. Whether this provision of 1967 requires a review is a separate issue of deliberation and all may articulate their views as per their interests/beliefs, it is essential that criticism related to the Defence forces should be based on the facts and figures as our serving community of the defence forces still remains ‘apolitical’ by all standards. It is also the responsibility of the Indian citizen to ensure that the morale of the defence forces remains high always and every time.
As far as suicide in the defence forces and para military forces are concerned, these are worrying undoubtedly. These are happening in all ranks at all locations, be it in peace or in the field areas. Defence forces have initiated multiple measures to arrest this trend but more needs to be done which also requires involvement of the Central/State governments as the loss of this manpower is not only distressing and unbearable to the family of the departed soul but also to the defence forces on multiple counts. All our effort must be put in place to address this issue irrespective of the type of the recruitment and for all ranks.
The Agniveers debate also got heated up consequent to the death of Agniveer Gawate Akshay Laxman whom we lost due to medical complications while serving in Siachen glacier. The debate focussed on the value of compensation despite the clarification being given specifying the entitled amount as per current terms of engagement. There is always a scope to improve the terms of engagements related to various entitlements which is an ongoing issue and all valid observations must be taken ‘note of’ by the decision makers by the Government. Time has come to accord parity in entitlements at least after the death.
These two incidents also resulted in raising certain issues again which have been debated multiple times. One issue predominantly got raised about the reduced duration of training of Agniveer despite the fact they are also required to function under same working conditions where people of erstwhile training duration are posted. Not only this, the introduction of the scheme is also criticised being accused of being implemented as ‘Top Down’. The doubts are also being expressed with respect to the training standards of the Agniveers as compared to the erstwhile recruits. These apprehensions are being accepted by people without factual inputs and giving the impression as if the entire service hierarchy is not concerned about the professional competence of the Agniveers and their training standards.
When Hamal attacked Israel on 07 Oct 23, the entire nation united to speak in a single voice. All political parties joined the National Unity Government in Israel and one odd political party which did not join the National Unity government also supported the Government unconditionally. They did this for the success of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) despite having major differences prior to 07 Oct 23 event. There is a merit to speak in a single voice for all the Indians when the geo-political situation is fast charging and China has transgressed at the LAC in Eastern Ladakh. ‘Top down’ implementation of Agripath scheme, reduced duration of training of Agniveers and their professional profile at the end of the training is discussed as under:
Top Down Approach. The militaries the world over are averse to ‘change’. In fact, ‘change’ is something which is invariably resisted despite pressing needs by the majority of the organisations. Changing profile of the recruits and enhanced qualitative intakes did provide options to the defence forces to tweak their training duration even earlier but it did not happen. Even in the US Army, the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defence Reorganization Act of 4 Oct 1986 was a ‘Top Down’ approach which forced the forces to go in for major sweeping changes. The mandatory implementation of Agnipath scheme also necessitated to re-examine the training duration and it emerged that it was possible after factoring the enhanced quality intake and addressing the redundancies. It therefore, clearly emerges that as a concept ‘Top Down Approach’ has no problems and has been adopted even by the best in the world. In fact, it is the only way to bring in major qualitative changes in the defence forces.
Reduced Training Duration. Initial training duration of an infantry soldier was approximately 38 weeks which also included four weeks of recruit leave during the training duration. Four weeks of leave was granted after the Basic Military Training (BMT) and the Advance Military Training (AMT) which broke the learning momentum of the recruits . The training duration of the Agniveers now is of 31 weeks, just three weeks lesser than the previous training duration which is merely 10 percent less than the training duration which is fully justified in view of the qualitative surge at the entry level, change recruiting norm wherein written test is conducted first followed by the physical test and best in the country getting selected due to All India Composition in the recruiting system of the Agniveers. The educational qualifications at the entry level and other skills like IT knowledge provide better learning outcomes. Despite matriculation being the minimum educational qualification for the Infantry soldier, an increased percentage of 12th standard every year are coming up for the recruitment & getting selected. Now even the graduates are coming up which is a sure reflection of a distinct qualitative surge resulting in better trainability and training outcomes.
End State Training Standards. Since the better qualitative intake has been coming in the new system, the training output in all important domains is sure to go up, be it in physical training, drill, small Arms firing, Map reading, Field craft and all other such subjects. The Agniveers of today don’t require such a long BMT as was prevalent earlier but renewed focus on ATM is ‘more in order’ to ensure a professionally more competent soldier. It is reasonable to assume that core subjects continue to be given adequate attention and reduction is related to spare periods/discretionary periods and to those subjects where basic intake level has improved. Since there is no apparent reduction in the core subjects, it is reasonable to assume that training outcomes are bound to be better given the improvement in the quality intakes. It is upto the ADG Strategic Communication to put the data to highlight the improved performance . Improved competitiveness is also a factor for better performance as performance during the training period is also counted in the merit for top 25 percent selection.
There are issues with the Agnipath scheme which need to be further improved, the larger percentage of retention being one as against only 25 % retention. Some aberrations will continue not only in the ‘Agnipath’ scheme but to all other jobs where higher job assurance is to be given including doing away with outsourcing and contractual appointments which is another issue of the national debate. The national debate to identify what is best for the nation and its nationals must continue.
(The author is a Kargil war veteran and senior fellow of CLAWS.)
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