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Agniveer: Volunteers for New Age Warfare

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By Devendra Kumar Budakoti

The Agniveer Scheme for the armed forces recruitment is an issue in this 2024 General Election. Uttarakhand has a history of people joining the army since the British Period.  The Garhwalis and Kumaonis had been part of the British Gorkha regiments since 1815. It was much later that the separate regiments of Garhwal Rifles and Kumaon regiments come into existence. So much so that the Scottish Bagpipes became an integral part of traditional Pahadi music and are used in pahari folk songs.

Under the Agniveer scheme, only 25% of the recruits will be retained and for those released after 4 years, there is no assurance of re-employment and hence the cause of concern for the youth.

Many countries with standing armies have soldiers and officers on contract for a short period. In India this was first started by the British colonial government at the time of World War II – eligible candidates were selected as Emergency Commission Officers and other ranks were also recruited for a period of 5 years. The massive recruitment drive of soldiers at the time of WW2 for a contract period of 5 years was done successfully despite the fact that those recruited were to go directly to the battlefields after short basic training, to the Burma front, the then Malaya, Africa, Mesopotamia-Iran/Iraq and Europe.

What kind of motivation did these Indians have to serve in large numbers? After the period of 5 years many officers were decommissioned and soldiers were also similarly released. The best examples of this World War-2 emergency commission officer (ECOs) is former Army Chief, General K Sundarji and the Late General Bipin Rawat’s father, who also retired as a General.

The emergency commissioning was again initiated in 1963, after the India China war in 1962. NP Nawani, IAS, who served as Chief Secretary of Tripura and retired as Secretary, Government of India, was an ECO of the 1963 batch. There is a long list of such officers from the state of Uttarakhand.

Today we see this in the form of Short Service Commission, initially for 5 years, commission.

The Agniveer scheme was initiated in April 2022, for a period of 4 years. This scheme led to an agitation in the country. The agitation turned ugly, with burning of public property, including buses and trains. What kind of agitating youth were these, who were thinking of joining disciplined forces?

In the case of the short service commissioned officers, no concrete re-employment plan was in place after decommissioning. Is it because they were qualified and trained to take care of their future and were comparatively small in numbers as compared to the numbers of those soldiers who will be released from the armed forces in future. Well numbers do matter in established democracy!

The government should emphasise that our armed forces want a slim, trim and youthful profile of its fighting soldiers and, hence, the Agniveer scheme. The armed forces need volunteers for new age warfare to handle computerised weaponary and Information Technology and satellite-based communication systems. These volunteers will have qualification and training to re-adjust in the civilian life on release.

The youth look forward to join the armed forces as it provides good pay, perks, privileges, pension and finally prestige. The government needs to give an assurance on re-employment in the state police forces and or in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). Similarly, the government needs to plan for Short Services Commissioned officers.

We need a healthy, robust and young army in the new age technological warfare. The inducted Agniveer must be those who feel privileged and honoured to serve in the armed forces even if for a short period of 4 years and not become a disgruntled lot.

(The author is a sociologist and has been with the NGO development sector for more than 35 years now. He is an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and his research work is quoted in books of Nobel laureate Prof Amartya Sen)