New Delhi: The recruitment of Gorkhas into the Indian Army will be based on the Agnipath scheme and that call has to be taken by the Nepal government, former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan (retired) said at ThePrint’s Off The Cuff Saturday.
“This tripartite agreement between us [India-UK-Nepal], at that time Nepal [1947] was a monarchy, with the majesty of the British government. They said that, similar conditions for Nepali soldiers to apply for this service,” the former CDS said in conversation with ThePrint’s Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta and Snehesh Alex Philip, Editor (Defence and Diplomacy), at the Quorum, Gurugram.
“That’s what the condition was put by the majesty that time—you have to give them a similar kind of, which is there, what is applicable to the Indian Army and the British [Army]. And that’s what was promised.”
The British East India Company raised the first Gorkha regiment in 1815, which began the two-century tradition of Nepalese soldiers serving in a foreign army. At the time of Independence, New Delhi and London agreed to split the Gorkha regiments, with six units becoming a part of the Indian Army, while four units were transferred to Britain.
“And that’s why they get the same pay, same pension. In fact, if they don’t get anything in Nepal, once they go home, it’s because the Nepal government has deprived them of facilities which we give to our soldiers…because they do not want that. So, there have been some challenges. So, from our side, we have fulfilled a part of our bargain,” Chauhan said.
The onus is now on Kathmandu to decide whether it will send its soldiers to be employed in the Indian Army under the Agnipath scheme, Gen. Chauhan said, underlining that there cannot be one scheme for citizens of Nepal, and one for Indian nationals.
Both Gen Chauhan and his predecessor General Bipin Rawat were commissioned into the 11th Gorkha Rifles
The issue of recruitment of Gorkhas from Nepal into the Indian Army remains a persistent irritant in ties between New Delhi and Kathmandu. In 2022, India completely overhauled the recruitment for the Army under the Agnipath scheme. Soldiers will be recruited for four years, with 25 percent being retained for 15 years, while the remaining 75 percent of Agniveers are sent home with a severance package.
The aim is to reduce the age of the soldiers serving in the armed forces, while also making the forces future ready. The tour of duty-style of recruitment upends the traditional serving requirements for soldiers below the rank of a commissioned officer, which included pensions and other benefits after 15 years of service.
Nepal has so far refused to accept the scheme, asserting that the scheme which was implemented by India, without consultation violated the Tripartite Agreement.
However, the tripartite agreement signed between India, the UK and Nepal on 1 May 1947 and ratified later in the year, assures equal treatment for citizens of Nepal as with the parent armies.
The Gorkha regiments have participated in both the World Wars, as well as multiple conflicts fought by India since Independence. Over 1.22 lakh Nepali citizens receive a pension from the Indian government due to their service in the Army. The pensions and salaries are important for the economy of Nepal, with some estimates indicating that the amount transferred to the pensioners is worth almost three percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
As a result of the political impasse, several Nepali youth have made the trek to Eastern Europe and are found in the battlefields of Ukraine, with the Russian Army becoming an avenue for their service ambitions. Kathmandu has estimated that over 200 Nepalis have made the journey to Russia to join the Russian Army, as have several Indian nationals.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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