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‘Protest funded by foreign forces, need to build younger Army’ — RSS all for Agnipath

Agnipath protests also condemned by ABVP, the RSS' student wing, which issued a statement calling the agitation a 'political conspiracy'.

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New Delhi: The Modi government’s Agnipath scheme is “crucial to build a younger Army for the future”, and the ongoing protests against it are “planned and funded” — this is the view within the RSS on the controversial military recruitment initiative, according to two senior functionaries of the BJP’s ideological parent.

“The Agnipath scheme should never be rolled back as it has been long-awaited,” a senior functionary from the RSS central committee told ThePrint. “The protests against it are staged, planned and funded by outside (foreign) forces that want India to become weak,” he added.

A second senior functionary, talking about the need for a younger Army to deal with future challenges and border crises, said “the idea is for the betterment of the Indian Army”.

“We are such a young country and we need to take advantage of the demographic dividend and make optimum use of the youth force that we have,” he added.

Officially, the RSS has not made any statement on the Agnipath issue. Talking to ThePrint, Sunil Ambekar, Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh of the RSS, said: “National security is supreme for the country and the scheme should be viewed through the prism of security concerns.”

The Agnipath scheme envisages a four-year contractual engagement for soldiers, referred to as Agniveers, to be appointed from ages 17.5 to 21 years. The government has extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment in 2022.

While all Agniveers will be given the option to enrol into the regular cadre after four years, only 25 per cent from each batch will be taken into the regular cadre of the armed forces.


Also read: Salaried jobs are hardly growing — govt data explains the Agnipath anger of young Indians


‘Govt cannot employ everyone’

The first RSS functionary quoted above said a scheme such as Agnipath will “broaden the scope for youth and give them a pan-India perspective”.

“The scheme will make our Army better and younger. The Army instils discipline and patriotism in recruits,” he added.

The functionary further said “the country has 55 per cent young people, and all of them cannot have government jobs”.

“It is high time the younger generation realises that the government cannot employ everyone. They (youth) need to start things on their own. We must encourage entrepreneurship, which used to flourish before the British ruled us,” he added.

On the protests, the functionary said: “Every time the government announces a policy or scheme, there are protests across states in a coordinated way. It is a well-fed ecosystem. Anybody with an open mind without bias will see reason. There can be discussion, criticism or analysis of a government policy, but damaging public property shamelessly to create certain footage and show India in a bad light is definitely not the act of sane people.”

According to the second functionary, “we fail to understand what the protests are all about”.

“The government never said or hinted anywhere that it would abandon the Agniveers. There would be healthy competition to get into the armed forces, and those who do not make it, would be absorbed in the paramilitary or police. Many ministries have announced schemes for such recruits,” he said.

The protests were also condemned by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student organisation affiliated to the RSS. On 19 June, it issued a statement calling the protests a “political conspiracy”.

“There can be criticism or discussion about the scheme. But it should be done through proper channels and in a peaceful way. Violence cannot be a solution to anything,” read the statement issued in Hindi. “The anxiety of the youth should be identified and resolved. Some forces have done extreme damage to the country by fuelling such protests for their vested interest.”

Captain Meera Siddharth Dave (Retd), an Indian Army veteran and active member of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, an outfit that shares its ideology with the RSS, echoed the others in saying that the Agnipath “protests are orchestrated to divert the attention of the youth and mislead them”.

“The Agnipath scheme is meant to build a disciplined patriot. Anyone who wore the uniform once, knows that being in the Army is not just a job, it is a way of life,” she said. “You always take the (Army) values with you. I was in short service, and I have never digressed from the way of life I practised during the training.”

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)


Also read: Armed forces not about jobs, it’s about passion, says MoD on Agnipath protests


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