India to press ahead with contentious military recruitment plan
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NEW DELHI • Enrolment under India's new armed services recruitment plan will commence this month, top defence officials have said, despite protests against a scheme that will drastically cut tenure and offer fewer service benefits at the end of the contract.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government on June 14 set out a policy called Agnipath, or "path of fire", designed to bring more people into the military on four-year contracts to lower the average age of India's 1.38 million-strong armed forces.
The scheme sparked violent protests in the northern and eastern parts of the country, with thousands of young men attacking train coaches, burning tyres and clashing with officials, after which the government tweaked some of the rules.
The plan has also been criticised by some defence experts, who say it could weaken the structure of the forces and have serious ramifications for national security in a country that shares often-tense borders with Pakistan and China.
But top defence officials said on Sunday that Agnipath is a transformational reform implemented to revamp the country's security infrastructure.
"Why should it be rolled back? This was a long-pending reform," Lieutenant-General Anil Puri, additional secretary in the Defence Ministry, told reporters in New Delhi.
Under Agnipath, 46,000 cadets will be recruited this year, with only 25 per cent to be kept on at the end of their four-year terms.
The cadets will go through training for six months and will then get deployed for 31/2 years.
One of the biggest concerns is the fate of the soldiers after they finish their term, but Lt-Gen Puri said the government will ensure that those enrolled under the scheme find suitable jobs when they are discharged.
He also said anyone participating in violent protests would not qualify for the defence services under the scheme.
On Sunday, the Home Ministry said it would reserve 10 per cent of vacancies in the paramilitary forces and the Assam Rifles, a unit in the Indian army, for those who have passed out of the army under the scheme, while the Defence Ministry said it would reserve 10 per cent of its vacancies for those who have completed the scheme.
REUTERS
