According to Lt Gen Anil Puri, additional secretary, Dept of Military Affairs, governments have intended to change the age profile of the armed forces since 1990, and the Covid recruitment break provided the opportunity for change.
New Delhi: At a press conference on the Agnipath scheme on Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Anil Puri, additional secretary, Department of Military Affairs, stated that serving in the army or being a patriot is a passion and a commitment rather than a regular job (“Deshbhakti ya fauj mein kaam karna ek junoon hai, ek jazba hai, lekin naukri nahi”). The senior military official in charge of the Agnipath plan is Lt Gen Puri.
Lt. General Puri made a reference to the public’s worries regarding the new military recruitment scheme and the ongoing protests against it when he remarked that the media was crucial in putting an end to any false information that had been propagated over the previous week. He continued, “Fake news has no place when it comes to national security.”
According to Lt Gen Puri, the Agnipath scheme places a focus on strengthening India’s national security, utilizing the power of the young, and being nation-centric.
Lt Gen Puri maintained that the Agnipath scheme had a long history and did not emerge out of nowehere. He claimed that the government and several committees have been considering a plan similar to Agnipath for decades. He continued that many committees, including the Arun Singh Committee, the Kargil Committee, and the Shekatkar Committee 2016, had debated along similar lines to the current plan. He emphasized that the Agnipath scheme just completes the procedure started by all of these committees.
Puri continued by saying that Covid-19 served as the Agnipath scheme’s trigger. The halt of recruiting over the previous two years owing to the pandemic provided a chance to introduce this most recent reform, he added, even though governments had desired to adjust the age profile for the tri-services since 1990.
The military has been thoroughly examining and researching the Agnipath scheme for the past two years, Lt Gen Puri stated. He continued by saying that the new hiring procedure was developed by several people, not just one.
He added that they had reviewed protocols in the UK, the US, and France, as well as the writings of other defense specialists. This assisted us in incorporating best practices and helped us arrive at the completed, successfully launched the scheme. But unlike in the past, the reform won’t stay a paper tiger, Puri continued.
Puri made reference to the projected age reduction in the services once the Agnipath initiative is in place when he said, “It is important to harness and exploit India’s demographic dividend and that is why we must use our young population in the armed forces.” He continued, “Indian problems require Indian solutions.”
The recruitment procedure won’t alter; it will remain the same as it was five years ago and in the past, according to Lt. General Puri. He further clarified that the Indian Army’s regimentation procedure, the specifics of which are awaiting, will not change.
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