The Agniveer project appears to be a rather hasty shortcut to address the issue of soldier shortage

The Ministry of Defence’s new Human Resources Policy on Recruitment, initially called the Tour of Duty which has since been officially rechristened as the Agnipath and Agniveer project, is practically just a tour rather than being a full-fledged occupation as a brother-in-arms. The four-year ToD is seemingly a fantastically absurd, shortsighted idea that will severely damage the soul of the time-tested regimental system, crippling the camaraderie, traditions and ethos of battalions and regiments. The Army, already working with a shortfall of 125,000 soldiers during the last two years on account of there being no new appointments or even recruitment rallies being organised across regimental centres because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is operating with these self-damaging deficiencies on the Line of Control and the Line of Actual Control. With the ToD intake pegged at 40,000 while 60,000 soldiers retire annually, the manpower void is bound to increase as the years go by. To break down its minuses, the Agnipath and Agniveer project, which is the name of the new All-India All-Class (AIAC) composition of the Army, will portend 40,000 Agniveers with Rs 40,000 salary becoming voluntary conscripts for four years (training for the first six months, followed by regular service for the next three-and-a-half years), with 10 per cent of them being absorbed in the regular force, as we have known it.

Those discharged will get a severance package of Rs 11 lakh, one-third of which they would have paid for from their own earnings. But then this arrangement gives rise to some genuine fears. Where do these recruits go at the end of their four-year tenure? True, some of them, having surely imbibed a few good habits through their training in the Army, will turn out to be successful in other fields of life, too, but what fate awaits the majority of them, especially now that the job market is experiencing a severe recession? According to a recent article in these very pages, experts fear that the Agniveers after hanging their boots could turn into military contractors (mercenaries) or join insurgency movements, criminal gangs and other such illegal professions. Since they would supposedly have worked at border stations and other hard postings too, there is a clear and present danger of them spilling out secrets or information relating to national security to external agencies or agents. It seems the Government is acting penny wise, pound foolish!Pioneer