The Janata Dal (United), commonly known as JD(U), has expressed concerns over the Agniveer scheme, believing it negatively impacted the recent Lok Sabha election results. This scheme recruits young individuals into the Armed Forces for a period of four years, retaining only 25% of them afterwards. The remaining recruits are discharged with some financial benefits.
Implemented in 2022, the Agniveer scheme has faced significant criticism from the defence community, which argues that it compromises the warfighting capabilities of the forces and unfairly disadvantages soldiers. The Congress party even pledged to abolish this new recruitment method in their manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, favoring a return to the older system.
On Thursday, JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi called for modifications to the Agniveer scheme. He stated, "The Agniveer scheme has been heavily criticized since its introduction, and we saw its impact on elections too. We need to make changes in this new army recruitment." Tyagi further emphasized that a section of voters was upset over the scheme, and the party wants to address the public's concerns by discussing and removing the identified shortcomings.
Regarding the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), JD(U) has no objection but stresses the importance of consulting all stakeholders. The party's national president and Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, had previously written to the Law Commission chief on this matter. Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the UCC would be implemented during the Modi government's third term.
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, who contested the Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh in alliance with Congress, also called for scrapping the Agniveer scheme. Yadav stated, "I think the Agniveer system should be scrapped immediately. The government should admit that it made a mistake and should not have introduced the Agniveer system."
Former army chief General VK Singh suggested last month that modifications might be considered for the Agnipath scheme after the first batch of recruits completes their four years of service. General Singh, who served as the army chief from March 2010 to May 2012, noted that the initial batch of Agniveers had already been deployed to their units.
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