Though these folks with minds blinded by greed don’t
understand the evil of the destruction of 1’s personal race……
Age lengthy household traditions disappear with the destruction
of a household…
– The Bhagwad Gita Chapter I Verse 38 and 40
The Agnipath scheme just lately introduced by the Division of Navy Affairs goes to be a lethal blow hanging on the roots of the time-tested ethos and traditions of India’s armed forces. The occasions that unfolded after its launch, similar to reserving vacancies to assuage the considerations of the protesting aspirants, additionally give the impression that this scheme is exploitative in nature given the desperation of the nation’s unemployed youth immediately.
What’s of main concern is that our senior management appears snug with the tip state: a scenario the place a Commanding Officer of a Battalion/Regiment/equal preventing unit within the different companies can have solely 50% of his troops as regulars with the stability 50% being non permanent for a interval of 4 years. Amongst them, 75% could be within the means of being despatched out after 4 years, and this course of can be an annual function.
If nearly all of the Commanding Officers have certainly agreed to this scheme – whereas giving their feedback, which will need to have been sought from the command chain earlier than making such a significant change in our recruitment coverage – then there’s hardly something that may be mentioned, besides that frequent army expertise would recommend that accepting such a 50:50 ratio shouldn’t be smart, significantly in fight items pitting themselves in opposition to an enemy who will throw their greatest at you.
The utmost share {that a} fight chief may settle for is having as much as 25% rookies or tour of responsibility troopers in his crew or unit, and due to this fact, such an finish state wants a reconsideration on operational efficacy grounds alone.
Administratively too, the Agnipath army recruitment scheme goes to throw up extra – and fully avoidable – challenges for the armed forces. Unit commanders and all officers will now need to busy themselves with writing efficiency experiences on these Agniveers proper from their induction.
At present, so far as the Army is worried, such experiences are initiated solely after a soldier reaches the rank of a Naik – after round eight-nine years of service. Alternatively, another type of choice course of by a board of officers should be put in place.
The purpose is, are the armed forces going to get extra concerned in administrative work at the price of coaching for conflict?
Issues may worsen within the years forward given the tradition gaining floor as exemplified by the appeals for granting of everlasting fee by some brief service officers earlier than the courts. Thus, there’s additionally an actual hazard of perceived subjectivity/grievances creeping down into the fourth-year Agniveer cadre as nicely, on account of ‘job safety’.
One other possible undesired results of this mode of recruitment can be that the armed forces are going to develop into the final alternative of employment – even under Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) – for these in dire straits or those that are unable to clear the checks for jobs providing larger safety. For instance, if a person will get by each the armed forces and the CAPFs, he’ll, possibly, go for the latter. Due to this fact, one has to ask, who’re those selecting to hitch this occupation with the very best danger to life and but no assure of profession safety? Maybe it’s best for the readers to attract their very own conclusions.
Different challenges
A vital problem of this scheme, that it may also help lower the burgeoning pension invoice, due to this fact saving the taxpayers’ cash, has been sought to be downplayed for causes merely not understood.
Whereas saving the taxpayers’ cash needs to be a prime precedence in a democracy, this problem ought to have been labored out in black and white and positioned within the public area as the important thing function of the scheme.
As a substitute, all the effort has been extra on focussing public consideration that this scheme is a few form of a golden tablet to deliver down the common age of the armed forces from 32 to 26 years which by the way is coming about purely as a perform of statistics on account of the yearly launch of 75% of the fourth yr Agniveers and never on account of any discount within the minimal age of consumption which has remained the identical viz, 17.5 years.
The purpose right here is that, we now have gone about these very very important duties of attaining financial savings and in addition attaining a discount within the common age within the worst potential method. It might have been a lot wiser and less complicated to synergise the manpower wants of the armed forces and the CAPFs/AR/Coast Guard after which induct their recruits (with a decrease age profile) progressively into the armed forces as much as a most of 25% of our power for a tour of responsibility of 5 to 6 years, earlier than reverting them again to their mother or father organisation for which they had been initially chosen.
This induction of recruits from the CAPFs would nevertheless run parallel to the common (however proportionately lowered) armed forces recruitment consumption. By such a technique not solely will the armed forces save on their pension invoice to the extent of the consumption from the CAPFs however there could be a spin off resulting in financial savings in fundamental coaching prices that may accrue to those CAPFs as nicely.
It’s well-known within the armed forces that ‘Bullshit baffles the Mind’, implying that when your case is low in ‘substance’, you pad it up in ‘type’ by including flowery jargon and presenting in a vibrant file cowl.
Giving such a “high-sounding” identify like ‘Agnipath’ to a scheme that was merely a change within the army recruitment coverage, and calling these new recruits ‘Agniveers’ as an alternative of ‘jawans’ speaks volumes of the character of the scheme that’s being actually pushed in a tearing hurry as an alternative of the extra mature methodology of first operating a pilot venture.
The armed forces are additionally making an enormous deal of the truth that they are going to be returning well-trained and disciplined residents to civil society as half of a bigger nation-building course of. Such spinoffs are good however this was at all times inherent within the case of all retiring servicemen. Nevertheless, this new plan of releasing a soldier again to society after simply 4 years of service shouldn’t be solely fraught with a number of imponderables however it additionally fully ignores the precedence of job safety within the minds of our folks given the tough socio-economic realities present within the nation.
Merely put, the most important downside of the brand new system is expounded to this unsure way forward for the Agniveers being launched from the armed forces. It makes little sense to say that they are going to be given precedence for choice or have a ten% reservation within the CAPFs and different organisations. There may be simply no assure right here except, the numbers are clearly spelt out and all of those Agniveers are allotted their particular person mother or father organisation on whom they’ll fall again on after their launch.
Something falling in need of such an iron-clad ensures will result in a scenario the place they may quickly earn the tag of being ‘rejects’ of the armed forces and handled as folks slicing into the vacancies of those CAPFs/different organisations. So it could be in our nationwide curiosity if the scope of this Agnipath scheme is amplified in order to have the Agniveers recruited into the armed forces in some type of a deputation from the CAPFs and different organisations earmarked to soak up them.
Such a system alone can allow the launched Agniveers to steer their publish armed forces life with pleasure and honour within the new organisation. Additional, such an association shouldn’t in any means deny an Agniveer the choice to get again to the civil avenue to hunt personal employment or proceed his training. The emptiness saved for him within the organisation from the place he was on such a deputation would nevertheless lapse and go to the profit to that exact organisation.
In a nut shell, due to this fact, this new armed forces recruitment coverage goes to disrupt the time-tested organisation of the armed forces on the grassroots and in addition adversely have an effect on the human useful resource efficacy of the armed forces.
We’ve got already broken our Larger Defence Buildings on the very prime by accepting a retrograde reform the place, as an alternative of making a tighter and extra accountable organisation by merging the armed forces Chiefs Of Employees Committee and the attendant Built-in Defence Employees with the present Division of Defence in order to create a very built-in Division of Defence/Ministry of Defence, we additional divided ourselves and created one other separate (and quite curiously named) Division of Navy Affairs.
We are actually additionally seeing our seniormost officers sporting designations of the civil companies even when such a designation is decrease than that exact army rank within the warrant of priority. The purpose might seem minor however it will be significant that the army insists on utilizing its personal rank acceptable designations which on this case might be ‘Deputy Chief of Defence Employees’; and if the stumbling block is on a query of getting sure monetary/administrative powers, the requisite authorities notifications can at all times be modified/amended to incorporate army ranks when army officers are posted in authorities departments.
The bigger query earlier than each considering Indian ought to be whether or not we now have chosen the right path to nurture the grass oot well being of the armed forces at one degree and in addition information them to realize their rightful future at one other degree. Each future and well being are in our fingers however whereas well being could also be forgiving sufficient to provide us a second probability, our future won’t.
Ravi Dastane is a veteran Lieutenant Normal who commanded the strategic Excessive Altitude 14 Corps at Leh. He retired because the Deputy Chief, HQ IDS. He has additionally authored a e-book titled India’s Armed Forces: Tempering the Metal.
