Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, onTuesday, announced a new plan regarding the defense forces. The name of thisnew scheme is ‘Agnipath’ wherein the youth of 17.5 to 21 years will berecruited into the armed forces for the perioduncalled-forvaloruncalled-for of 4 years. These recruitedsoldiers will be given the name of ‘Agniveers.’
However, after the launch of thisscheme, a great section of the armed forces criticized it by saying that it will hit the professionalism, ethos,and fighting spirit of the armed forces as well as possibly lead to the militarizationof the civil society.
Firstly, military observers believe thatthis scheme does not provide any incentive for the youth to join the armedforces for the tenure of only four years. They also greatly think that thesoldiers recruited under this scheme will be risk-averse as they will belooking for a second career as well.
Second, it is firmly believed by many armyveterans that the cost of training does not tally with the tenure of thisscheme. Army spends 16 lakhs, Navy around 27 lakhs and IAF spends 39 lakhs forthe training of the cadets, how can someone spend such a huge amount just toget recruited for the term of four years.
Thirdly, many are also concerned thatafter the completion of their tenure, 75% of the trained manpower will be goingout which can later prove to be a national threat as they will be leaving thearmed forces at a very tender age and if will remain unemployed after this,they can fall into pray of lure crimes.
Lastly, the main question that has come upis how 6 months of training is enough for Agniveers is enough when it takes 7-8years for a person to become a fully trained combat-ready soldier.
Here are some of the tweets related to the ‘Agnipath’ scheme.