New Delhi: Amidst violent protests across the country against the Centre's 'Agnipath' scheme, retired Brigadier and war veteran, Dr BK Khanna, said that in case of a war troops recruited under the short-term Agnipath scheme will face the same fate as Russian soldiers, recruited for a short tenure, in the war with Ukraine where they are suffering severe casualties.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, retired Brigadier Dr BK Khanna, a war veteran who has fought many wars including the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war, expressed his reservation against the Centre's new military recruitment process. He said that there are many examples all over the world manifesting that armies with short tenure soldiers tend to fail on the ground during battle.
"Just look at what happened in the Russia-Ukraine ongoing conflict. Russia had sent thousands of its short-tenure, young troopers to Ukraine, and those suffered heavy casualties. Later, Putin had to withdraw major of these young troopers from the strategic areas," said Brigadier Khanna.
Explaining further the kind of bond, respect, and brotherhood that gets into the blood of soldiers, Brigadier Khanna said that it takes years to get molded into the battalion group and it takes years to earn that respect and trust.
As to how the scheme will affect professionalism and cohesiveness in the armed forces, he said “Under this newly announced 'Agnipath' scheme, there will be enrolment at the pan-India level which in a way diminishes the professionalism that is in the ethos of soldiers."
Asked whether the 75% of those recruited under the new scheme who'll roughly make it around 35,000 trained troopers could pose a threat to national security or to civil peace after they get disbanded from the armed forces, Brig Khanna said that one cannot deny the fact that their frustration and anger will soar after they are not retained in the armed forces and if they failed to get a job.
"Home Minister Amit Shah has been saying that his Ministry will give priority to those who have completed four years under the 'Agnipath' scheme in the recruitment of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles. These are just talks and the only thing that I am worried about is that there is no talk on 'Pilot Training'. This scheme revolves around a very sensitive issue of upgrading the military recruitment process and therefore, such ideas and policies should not be imposed directly. There should be pilot training first. For example- why don't they impose this on CAPF first? Imposing something like this directly on the Army can have devastating impacts,” said Brigadier Khanna.
As for the ongoing criticism against the scheme that it lacks professionalism and may lead to a lack of cohesiveness, Brigadier Khanna said that "one cannot deny all these opinions since it is a matter of national security but as the government has been saying that it needs to broaden up its military expenditure as a huge chunk of it goes to the pension scheme. But I would also suggest that one should also think to bring down the number of troops and increase the expenditure in the technological domain which is the need of the hour."
