Government’s Disclaimer on Agnipath Scheme: Protesters are not to be Considered for Recruitment

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, June 19: In a bid to douse the fire sparked off from protests against the centre’s recruitment scheme for the defence forces “Agnipath,” the defence tri-service has decided not to entertain anyone participating in the disturbances for recruitment under the scheme while ruling out any possibility of rolling back the scheme.

The government also denied that the concessions granted under the scheme including two year relaxation in age limit in the first year 10 per cent reservation in various government department jobs for the retrenched “Agniveers” were knee-jerk reactions to the outbreak of young aspirants’ anger against the scheme, but they were planned in advance. Only that the planners did not anticipate outbreak of violence because the defence services stand for discipline and undisciplined have no scope in it.

The defence tri-service briefing looked to clear doubts about the ‘Agnipath’ scheme and explained why the country needs this policy for mass entry to the armed forces. A large number of soldiers were in their 30s and this age factor had become worrisome, Lieutenant General Anil Puri who is the Additional Secretary in the Department of Military Affairs, told reporters citing a report by a committee on the 1999 Kargil War.

The three wings of the defence services also announced their recruitment programmes under the scheme. Lieutenant General C Bansi Ponnappa said the rallies for army recruitment will start in the first half of August and the first lot of ‘Agniveers’ will come in by December first week. The second lot will come by February. The officer said the army will hold 83 recruitment rallies and touch “every village” in the country.

For the navy, the first lot of ‘Agniveers’ will reach INS Chilka in Odisha for training by November 21. The air force will enrol the first batch of ‘Agniveers’ by December this year and training will begin the same month.

But those applying under the ‘Agnipath’ scheme would have to give an undertaking that they were not part of any violent protest or incident of arson that have broken out across the country, top defence officers said today.

Addressing the media at a briefing by top officers from the Army, Navy and Air Force, Lieutenant General Anil Puri, additional secretary with the Department of Military Affairs, said, “All Agniveers will have to give a pledge that he/she never took part in any arson, protest.”

Stressing that a police verification of all applicants will be carried out before they are considered for selection as ‘Agniveers’, he said, “We had not anticipated the recent violence over this scheme. There is no place for indiscipline in the Armed Forces. If there is any FIR against any candidate they cannot be a part of Agniveers.”

The announcement followed a meeting the three services chiefs had with the defence minister Rajnath Singh, the second in as many days since the outbreak of violence over the Agnipath scheme. Giving more details about the recruitment plan, the Air Marshal S.K. Jha said notification and registration process for enrollment of first batch will go live online from June 24 through the well-established online system of the Indian Air Force. “From July 24 online examination will start and by end December we will enroll the first batch and December 30 the training will commence,” he said.

Navy’s Chief of Personnel Vice-Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi said they have already started working on the process and the advertisement will reach the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting by June 25 and the process would start within one month. “By November 21 the first batch of Agniveers will report at our training centre INS Chilka. The Agniveers will be gender neutral. Women will also be inducted,” he said.

Of the 3,000 odd Agniveers the Navy plan to induct this year this year there will be some women, Vice-Admiral Tripathi said and added. “We are working out the numbers based on the number of ships they can be accommodated and the facilities in training establishments.”

The Navy already has women officers serving on aircraft and on-board warships, he noted. The Navy is looking at recruiting upto 600 women Agniveers depending on the modalities they would be posted on warships as well, it has been learnt.

For the Army, the terms and conditions and eligibility criteria have already been put up on the Army website, said Lt. Gen. C.B. Ponnappa, Adjutant General of Army. “On July 1we will have notification from all recruitment offices. The first rallies will start in the first week of August and continue till November. In two batches induction will be done into training centres,” he explained. The Army which plans to induct 40,000 Agniveers in the first batch will recruit around 25,000 Agniveers in first batch by first half of December and remaining in the second batch by first half of February 2023.

Lt. General Puri also said the centre did not give concessions in the ‘Agnipath’ scheme because of protests and arson, but that those were already in the works. He said the ‘Agnipath’ planners did not anticipate the protests because the armed forces stand for discipline and only disciplined applicants join the former.

The top military officer said the COVID-19 pandemic and the long lockdown allowed the planners to finally make the move to the ‘Agnipath’ scheme. “There could have been no better time to implement the Agnipath scheme. This was the least painful time (for the switch),” he said.

“We had lengthy discussions on how to make our forces young. We studied foreign forces too. We want young people. Youth are risk takers, they have passion, josh aur hosh in equal proportions,” said Lt. General Puri.

Lieutenant General Puri said any candidate who faces a police case cannot apply for ‘Agnipath’. “The Agnipath scheme will not be rolled back. Why should it be rolled back?” he said.

The protests, meanwhile, continues in some states, the most intense being in Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar. The centre has announced several concessions amid the protests. There will be a 10 per cent quota in Defence Ministry jobs, spread across the Coast Guard and defence civilian posts, and all the 16 defence public sector undertakings. This reservation would be in addition to existing reservation for ex-servicemen.

On top of all this, the government announced 10 per cent reservation for ‘Agniveers’ in the Central Armed Police Forces, or CAPFs, and the Assam Rifles, which comes under the Defence Ministry.

But the Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Sunday attacked the Centre over the Agnipath scheme and said “This scheme will kill the youth of the country, will finish Army.” Urging the youth to recognise “fake nationalists”, Gandhi assured her party’s full support to those peacefully protesting the Centre’s Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the armed forces. She made the remarks as Congress MPs and leaders sat on a ‘Satyagraha’ at Jantar Mantar here in solidarity with the youths protesting the controversial scheme.

Her brother and the party’s former national president Rahul Gandhi also attacked the prime minister Narendra Modi over the scheme and said by repeatedly giving false hope of jobs, he has forced the youth to walk on ‘Agnipath’ of unemployment.