Agnipath set to hit combat effectiveness: Ex-navy chief

The controversy swirling around the Agnipath scheme for the induction of soldiers into the armed forces deepened on Thursday.

The controversy swirling around the Agnipath scheme for the induction of soldiers into the armed forces further deepened on Thursday after former navy chief Admiral KB Singh criticised the recruitment model saying it will “degrade the combat effectiveness” of the military.

Former navy chief Admiral KB Singh.

“The only motivation driving the Agnipath is reducing the pension bill. The fact that this scheme will degrade combat effectiveness is known to all who understand national security,” Singh wrote on X on Thursday, in response to a post on the subject by another former navy chief, Admiral Arun Prakash.

Singh’s comments are significant because he was among the key figures involved in discussions on the Agnipath proposal and retired from the top job in November 2021, months before the National Democratic Alliance government announced the scheme in June 2022.

The development came a day after Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi released a video of the father of an Agniveer, saying that the family had not received any compensation or help from the Centre after his son was killed in a landmine explosion in Naushera in Jammu & Kashmir in January.

The army, however, rebutted this, saying a chunk of the compensation was paid to the next of kin of Agniveer Ajay Kumar and the rest would be disbursed shortly.

The Agnipath scheme was a major departure from the military’s decades-old recruitment system, and seeks to recruit soldiers for only four years, with a provision of retaining 25% of them in regular service.

Singh’s remarks on X were a response to a post related to national security by Prakash. “Economics take a back seat to national security. The sole litmus test for ANY change or reform in the military must be: “does it enhance or degrade combat effectiveness,” Prakash wrote on X on Wednesday, tagging an edit piece written by him in The Indian Express two years ago.

HT reached out to Singh, but he declined further comments.

The scheme was recently at the centre of an intense debate in Parliament, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior ministers accusing the Congress of spreading lies about the recruitment model. Earlier this week, Gandhi attacked the government in Lok Sabha over the scheme, claiming that the Agniveers recruited under it were not granted the status of martyrs and were akin to “use and throw” labour.

The Congress on Thursday attacked the government again over the controversial scheme. Colonel Rohit Chaudhary (retd), who heads the Opposition party’s ex-servicemen wing, said the Agniveer scheme was discriminatory and had consequences for national security.

“We should not have two kinds of soldiers and martyrs in this country. This scheme discriminates against soldiers in service as well as in martyrdom,” he said at a press conference.

The army has got positive feedback on Agniveers from its units and the scheme was finalised after extensive consultations, former army chief General Manoj Pande said in January 2024. He retired on June 30.

Pande’s earlier comments came weeks after his predecessor General Manoj Mukund Naravane (retd) created a stir by saying that the Agnipath scheme caught the army by surprise, and was a bolt out of the blue for the air force and the navy. Naravane’s take on the scheme figured in the excerpts of his yet-to-be released autobiography titled Four Stars of Destiny.

Agnipath and linked employment issues likely slowed down the BJP-led NDA in the recent Lok Sabha elections and helped the INDIA bloc make inroads in several states that are widely seen as recruitment hubs for the armed forces, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, as previously reported by HT. .

Soldiers who were recruited through the legacy recruitment system serve in the armed forces for about 20 years before they retire in their late 30s with pension and other benefits. On the other hand, Agniveers released after four years do not get any benefits that ex-servicemen are entitled to, including pension, medical care, and canteen facilities.