New Delhi: Former army chief General MM Naravane said that India’s military recruitment policy, ‘Agnipath’ put the armed forces in surprise.
As reported by PTI, General Naravane in his memoir ‘Four Stars of Destiny’ elaborates on the birth of the ‘Agnipath’ recruitment scheme, considered India’s most radical military recruitment policy.
Shortly after assuming the role of Army Chief, General MM Naravane discussed the ‘Tour of Duty’ scheme with the prime minister in a meeting in early 2020. Originally proposed for the Army and involving short-term soldier tenures, the scheme’s scope was later expanded to encompass all three services when the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) introduced a broader formulation months later, the report said.
General MM Naravane, the 28th Army Chief from December 31, 2019, to April 30, 2022, mentioned that during his tenure, discussions took place regarding different models of the ‘Tour of Duty’ scheme.
Initially, the Army’s perspective was that 75 per cent of the recruited personnel could be retained, while the remaining 25 per cent should be released.
In June 2022, the government introduced the Agnipath recruitment scheme, focusing on the short-term enlistment of individuals to lower the age demographic of the three services. The initiative allows for the recruitment of individuals aged between 17.5 and 21 for four years, with the option to retain 25 per cent of them for an additional 15 years.
In his book published by Penguin Random House India, Naravane also remembered that the initial monthly salary for the recruits in the first year was set at only ₹20,000 (inclusive of all components), a figure he deemed as “unacceptable.”
Naravane said, “This was just not acceptable. Here, we were talking about a trained soldier, who was expected to lay down his life for the country. Surely a soldier could not be compared with a daily wage labourer?”
He stressed, “Based on our very strong recommendations, this was later raised to ₹30,000 per month.”
After the new formulation of the scheme, Gen Naravane said that the Army was “taken by surprise by this turn of events, but for the Navy and Air Force, it came like a bolt from the blue.”
“When I had first sounded out the PM about the Tour of Duty scheme, it was more on the lines of a short-service option at the soldier level, similar to the Short Service Commission scheme for officers that was already in vogue.”
“Just as a limited number of SSC officers are taken each year, likewise a limited number of jawans would be similarly enrolled and released after the completion of their ‘tour’ with the option of re-enlisting for another tour, if found to be fit,” he writes.
According to Naravane’s account, the subsequent months were relatively uneventful as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic became the primary focus, closely followed by the conflicts in Galwan in eastern Ladakh.
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