To say a scheme that provides jobs, even if for four years, is completely bad is silly. Forget four years, any scheme that provides a job for four months or four weeks may also have some merit to it. Here’s what is worse than a job for four years: A job for NO years. What would you rather have the Indian youth do? Become physically fit and train in the trenches, or sit in their bed and watch Instagram reels of Bollywood actors in Maldives? Would you rather a young Indian gets a taste of a disciplined and hard-working organization for four years? Or he spends the same time playing video games and watching porn? Because the latter is what is happening right now. The average Indian youth is addicted to their phone, becoming weak and losing drive and motivation. They have no agni and they are not veer. Big tech companies with their fantastic AI algorithms have figured out a way to make our youth sit staring at their phone for eight hours or more a day. Indian youth is consuming cheap data and eating processed atta, whereas there can do so much more with their life. In this context, the Indian Army offered a four year job scheme, which will offer tremendous learning, give a salary and even a lumpsum payment at the end. How on earth is this a completely terrible idea, as some opponents are saying it?
At the same time, is the scheme perfect? No. Which scheme in the world is perfect? Does the scheme meet every expectation we have regarding employment in the Indian Army? No, it doesn’t. To be clear, the Indian Army is not an employment exchange. It is an organization with a tough job and limited resources. It runs on taxpayer money, and it must justify why it spends the money it does. The Indian Army (in a broader sense, including Air and Naval forces) must hire, retain and let go of people based on its own needs first. If in that process it means people can have long careers, pensions, prestige and whatever else, that is a bonus. However, the Army’s first priority is to be a great organization itself, running at a reasonable, justifiable cost. The Indian Army is great, we all love it. The Indian Army has people ready to lay their lives for you. However, the Indian Army is not Santa Claus. It doesn’t come bearing gifts.
Perhaps this expectation mismatch is why protests happened in the first place. We love you so much, and you do only this for us? We want a job for a long time and then a pension forever, and you give us only four years? We want you to hire more people, and you are hiring less over time? The heart break is understandable, but chaos, vandalism and arson are not. Neither is the expectation that the Army can keep giving more and more jobs and pensions for life. Hasn’t technology affected every industry and every sector? How can the Army be immune to that? Take the example of the Signals division in the Army. Three decades ago, the Signals team would be laying landlines for communication. Today, we have encrypted wireless options. What does the Army do with the teams that laid land lines? For the record, they probably have been reallocated new responsibilities. There have been no mass layoffs, common in other industries. However, how can the Army keep hiring at the same rate and even grow, when technology is altering defence at such a rapid rate?
In this context, the Agniveer scheme was launched. Something that reduces the employment burden, and still gives youth a chance to fix themselves for four years. Sure, concerns of what happens after four years are valid. Incidentally, most graduates in India have the same concern – what happens to me once I finish my degree? They all deal with that uncertainty. Remember, life is hard, life is uphill, nothing is guaranteed, seeking security and pensions is not the way going forward. Working hard every single day is. The Agniveers, those that leave after four years, can make a life outside the Army for sure. They do need some skills, and the Army could add certain modules in the Agniveer program to help the leavers.
In today’s world, here are the most important skills – English and Computers. Even in 2022 India, the job opportunities an English speaker gets are far better than a vernacular speaking person. The Army is fantastic at English. Six months of English will take Agniveers to to a new level. Job options would multiply if an Agniveer was also an Angreziveer. Add six months of proper computer training, and you will have a batch of Agniveers that would be raring to go to the outside world. In fact, the situation could be opposite. Rather than an Agniveer wanting to stay on in the Army (25% of them will), it could be the Army trying to get the Agniveers to stay. Rather than intense competition for the 25% retainees, we should aim for a point where the Army is cajoling people to stay on. That should be the intent and goal for the Army. Like a good parent, they should educate their child such that they can be independent soon, even if it means the child will leave them.
Any new scheme requires modifications, especially because it is new. It takes a lot of hard work, creativity and initiative to come up with and push through new ideas. If we simply criticize, get political, become polarized, ask for withdrawals – it will take our country nowhere. Change is hard, but change is a must. The Agniveer scheme holds a lot of value, and with the right skill set given to the Agniveers, they can fly high well after their tenure ends.