By Lt Col JS Sodhi (Retd)
Subject Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw, Army Cross, whereas addressing the commissioning gentleman cadets within the Indian Army Academy, Dehradun spoke “One factor stays the identical. That’s, your activity and your obligation. You might be required to make sure the safety of this nation towards any aggressor. What does that imply for you? It implies that it is best to need to combat, and combat to win. There isn’t a room for losers. For those who lose, don’t come again”.
As debates and dialogue rage in each tv information channel, print and social media and within the dwelling rooms over the Agnipath scheme for recruitment of troopers within the Indian Armed Forces, there is no such thing as a denying the truth that that is the most important defence reform since Independence because it impacts each soldier/sailor/airman of the Indian Army, Indian Navy and the Indian Air Drive.
Nonetheless, the success of this scheme within the Indian Army hinges on two important factors – Implementation and Regimentation.
In contrast to the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Drive the place there is no such thing as a regimentation as a result of extremely technologically superior aircrafts and battleships which can be the primary stock of those two Providers, the Indian Army has a singular dimension and that’s “Regimentation”.
The primary pivotal level on which the success of the Agnipath scheme hinges within the Indian Army is the Implementation which incorporates each the 4-year service of the Agniveer and the resettlement of every Agniveer who won’t be retained publish the 4-year minimal service interval as enumerated within the Agnipath scheme.
Allow us to first take a look at implementation through the 4-year service interval. Throughout this era, it will likely be crucial upon each Officer, JCO and Different Ranks both within the Regimental Centre the place the six-month coaching interval will probably be carried out, or within the respective Regiments/Battalions the place the Agniveer will spend the three.5-year interval as a skilled soldier, to make sure that the Agniveer is moulded within the ethos and ecosystem of the preventing unit.
Throughout the 3.5-year service interval within the Regiment/Battalion every Agniveer ought to serve in the identical Regiment/Battalion and shouldn’t be posted out elsewhere. An Agniveer ought to have a subject space profile in his 3.5-year service in order that the younger age of the Agniveer is capitalised in a subject space for max fight output.
Additionally, the facility to retain an Agniveer for longer service after the 4-year service interval ought to vest with the respective Regimental Centres with due weightage being given to the inputs of the Agniveer’s efficiency obtained from his Commanding Officer.
The Agniveers retained for longer service past the 4-year interval can then be made to do profession programs and posted for Additional Regimental Employment (ERE) by the respective Information Places of work as per the insurance policies in vogue.
It’s however pure that after three years of service, every Agniveer would usually know the place he stands by way of getting everlasting enrolment and therefore would begin planning his life publish the four-year enlistment interval. It thus turns into crucial that organisations just like the Director Basic Resettlement (DGR) are staffed with extra officers in order that the resettlement of those launched Agniveers is seamless.
The previous expertise of DGR in settling Veterans (armed forces personnel of the Indian Army, Indian Navy and the Indian Air Drive who superannuate/retire) has not been encouraging as numerous resettlement schemes have nearly collapsed on account of PSUs pulling out, regardless of being mandated to take action, thus leaving many Veterans within the lurch and struggling publish retirement.
DGR will now need to be tasked to make sure that the Agniveers not retained after the 4-year interval is absorbed in numerous governmental organisations the place vacancies have been introduced by numerous Union Ministries and State Governments. No Agniveer could be left excessive and dry, else the agricultural youth’s first choice would be the Para Army Forces and different Authorities jobs the place there’s an assured lengthy length service and Armed Forces will turn into a second choice for them. Until now a job within the army is the primary choice for the agricultural youth of the nation, who comprise about 70% of the Indian armed forces troopers.
The opposite pivotal level on which the success of the Agnipath scheme within the Indian Army is Regimentation.
The slicing fringe of the Indian Army are the three preventing arms that are the Infantry, Mechanised Infantry and the Armoured Corps as these three arms have the primary direct contact with an enemy.
These three preventing arms have Regiments/Battalions which have mounted troop composition, a few of which date again to the pre-independence period and have excelled each in wars, each pre-independence and post-independence. The troop composition shouldn’t be tinkered with. Some examples are the Maratha Gentle Infantry, the Rajput Regiment, the Bihar Regiment, the Sikh Regiment and the Sikh Gentle Infantry of the Infantry which is also called the Queen of the Battle.
It is because an Agniveer who will probably be becoming a member of for a shortened length of 4 years will discover it straightforward to assimilate and amalgamate the environs of his Regiment/Battalion as many friends and seniors within the Regiment/Battalion could be from and round his village as a result of mounted troop composition in these three preventing arms. This can assist enhance the fight potential of those three preventing arms.
The same step in supporting arms just like the Regiment of Artillery, Corps of Army Air Defence and the Corps of Engineers will assist make the Agnipath scheme a roaring success.
The All India-All Class system of recruitment for troopers which has been in existence since our Independence in 1947 ought to positively be adopted, but on the similar time the troop composition of the present preventing models shouldn’t be modified.
The Agnipath scheme has to succeed in any respect prices because the nation’s safety relies on it, for there is no such thing as a runner up in a battle or in counter-insurgency operations.
Alan Mullaly rightly remarked “Management is having a compelling imaginative and prescient, a complete plan, relentless implementation and proficient folks working collectively”.
(Creator who retired from the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army is an alumnus of NDA, Khadakwasla and IIT Kanpur. He’s an M.Tech in Buildings and has additionally carried out MBA and LLB. He Tweets and Koos at @JassiSodhi24. Views expressed are private and don’t mirror the official place or coverage of Monetary Categorical On-line. Reproducing this content material with out permission is prohibited).
