New Delhi: Congress party once again raised the questions over the viability of the ‘Agnipath’ scheme of recruitment, apprehending it will cause discrimination and may weaken the country’s defence forces which may have an impact on the national security.
The party alleged that the Modi government was compromising the security of the country by trying to weaken the defence forces by causing differences and discrimination among the soldiers by creating a class within class i.e., regular soldiers and Agniveers. The terms of engagement and related emoluments for both, are different which is against the principles of homogeneous forces.
The party demanded that all benefits and emoluments of the Agniveers, should be at a par with the regular soldiers.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here today, the Chairman of the Ex-Servicemen Department of the AICC Col (Retd) Rohit Chaudhary said, the two recent casualties of Agniveers in a span of 15 days had reinforced the fear of the public and their apprehensions about the viability and the reliability of the scheme, which the Congress party had been raising very vocally right from the inception of the scheme.
He observed that the scheme had caused discrimination within the soldiers’ ranks as now, there are two set of soldiers i.e., regular soldiers, who serve for the full length of service and Agniveers who serve only for four years. He said, there were reports from some units in the defence forces that the Agniveers were being addressed as “4-saala”, a reference to their four-year service career in the defence forces which is not good for the homogeneity of the forces.
Pointing out the discrimination, which this scheme will create within the defence forces starting from the training and up to the retirement, he said, while the regular soldiers are trained for one and a half years with rigorous training, the Agniveers are trained only for six months. He said that all weather, battle worthy soldiers and battle hardened soldiers cannot be produced in six months. It takes almost six years to become a fully battle- hardened soldier after doing many trainings, cadres and courses, deployable in any situation independently. Whereas, Agniveer, who is trained only for six months, who will avail one year leave, shall be left with only two and half years of deployable service. Moreover, Army has issued employability restrictions for Agniveers, who cannot be deployed independently, on sensitive places, under harsh conditions etc. It is also important to note that the over all training hours of Agniveer training in six months is equal to 1,440 hours, whereas NCC ‘C’ certificate holder is trained for over 1,500 hours in a span of three years after attending at least six training camps. Prima-facie, NCC ‘C’ certificate cadet is better trained than an Agniveer. Under these circumstances, Agnipath scheme is a liability on the nation and shall cause potential threat to the defence mechanism of the country.
Similarly, Col Chaudhary added, compared to the regular soldiers, the Agniveers are not entitled to all the service benefits, neither during the service nor after completing their service/on death. He said that it is very well laid down in the terms and conditions of the service that they will not be entitled to gratuity, pension, disability pension, canteen facilities, and any kind of medical facility for self, wife and dependent children/parents. It is important to mention here that Agniveer ‘Gawate Akshay Laxman’s family will get full pay (@ last pay drawn from the day of his death/ martyrdom) till maximum up to four years which is the contractual period of the Agniveer. Thereafter he will cease to get any service benefit from Army. Whereas, if he had been the regular soldier of the army, then he would have got full salary (@ last pay drawn from the day of his death/ martyrdom) till fifteen years which would have been his retirement age as in the rank of Sepoy. Thereafter, his liberalized family pension would have started (minimum @ his last pay drawn) and would have continued till his wife/NOK (next of kin) would be alive. In addition, his wife/children and dependent parents would have also been entitled to all free medical benefits. This is the major difference between the entitlements of an Agniveer and a regular soldier, which should be known to the entire country as Modi government is trying to fool the nation over this scheme, which is neither good for the nation nor for the defence forces and especially nor for the Agniveers.
They will be employed between the age of 17.5- 21 years and shall simply get unemployed at the age of 21.5 to 25 years, after serving the defence forces for four years without any futuristic benefit or employment. He pointed out that this is not a good situation for the country.
The AICC Ex-servicemen department chairman disclosed that there was already a shortfall in the defence forces and if the current trend continued, our defence forces will be short of about five lakh soldiers in another five years and the residual force will comprise of 25 per cent Agniveers, which does not augur well for the country’s defence and security requirements, especially when our country is facing two and a half front threat from western/eastern borders and from internal security situations.
Pointing out the flaws in the policy, he asked, with no disability pension in Agnipath scheme, what will an Agniveer do if he gets disabled at such a young age? He said, the Agniveers must be given all the benefits like those of the regular soldiers.
Col. Chaudhary pointed out that soldiers serve the nation during his service and discharge their duties towards the nation and later when they retire/martyr then it is the duty of the nation to repay back and look after him/his family/ children. He pointed out that “Don’t weigh their honour with money”. Their entitlements and emoluments are the honour bestowed by the country on them and cannot be weighed in terms of money. While pointing out all these benefits, are an acknowledgement towards the soldier for his contribution made towards the country and it is not a favour granted to him. “Country feels safe & secure and you also feel safe when they guard our borders”, he pointed out, while justifying the demand for parity for Agniveers with respect to regular soldiers in terms of various benefits and entitlements.
