NEW DELHI: On Tuesday, the three service chiefs are likely to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi individually to brief him about the Centre’s Agnipath scheme and their plan for its implementation.
The meetings are being planned amid considerable opposition to the new military recruitment programme in several states. It is understood that the chiefs would brief the Prime Minister on various areas of the scheme's implementation. However, there is no formal news on the prime minister's discussions with the service chiefs.
After the new military recruitment model was unveiled on June 14, there were violent protests in several parts of the country. The Agnipath initiative calls for the recruitment of young people aged 17 and a half to 21 years old for only four years, with the option of keeping 25% of them for another 15 years.
Days thereafter, the administration raised the upper age limit for recruitment in 2022 to 23 years. The 'Agniveers' who will be recruited under the new system will be known as such. Several opposition parties, as well as military veterans, have slammed the system, challenging the recruits' four-year term. The government has defended the policy, claiming that the "transformative reform" strategy for armed forces recruitment will give young people a chance to serve their country.
Following criticism from some opposition parties of the government's Agnipath scheme for armed forces recruitment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated on Monday that a few decisions "may seem bitter at first" but will bring fruit in the following days.
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