New Delhi: Former army chief Gen M M Naravane has said, only time will tell whether Agnipath is a good scheme or not.
General (retd) Naravane was asked a variety of questions related to army recruitment scheme Agnipath.
Talking about the scheme, he said, Agnipath was launched after a great deal of deliberations. Many people say that it was launched due to financial and pecuniary reasons.That is also going to have an impact but the fact Is that we need a young army.
A section of retired army officers has strong reservations against the government’s Agnipath scheme of recruiting youth between the age group of 17.5 and 21 years for a four-year stint in the armed forces with a provision of voluntary retention after this period, based on merit.
Union Minister and former Army chief General V.K. Singh, at the time of announcement of the scheme, has said he was not involved in formulating the scheme and that he did not know much about it. He had said things would be clear after it was implemented on the ground.
Even Major General (retd.) G.D. Bakshi who is considered close to the ruling party in the centre had said, “was flabbergasted by the Agniveer scheme. I thought initially it was a trial being done on a pilot basis. This is an across the board change to convert Indian armed forces to a short tenure quasi-conscript force like the Chinese. For God’s sake, please don’t do it.”