https://www.rediff.com/news/column/ajai-shukla-beware-of-agnipath/20220713.htm
Financial implications apart, the Agnipath Yojana should not be implemented at the cost of a unit's combat effectiveness.
For a military like India's, which is operationally committed around the year on two-and-a-half fronts -- China, Pakistan and in Jammu and Kashmir -- treating soldiers equally has always been an article of faith and a basic principle of combat leadership.
If there are two separate pay grades for soldiers who perform the same battlefield functions, it will not be long before the one drawing lower pay turns on his better paid compatriot.
He will reason -- and, sooner or later voice his belief -- that since the other is paid better, he must take on higher risk in operations and discharge his battlefield functions better as well.
This will be the inevitable outcome of introducing differential recruitment and service models within the same combat unit.
The greatest unknown in this risky initiative lies in the way human relationships will play out -- not just between the Agniveers, who will be competing with their fellows for permanent jobs beyond their four-year tenures -- but also between the Agniveers and existing full-time soldiers.
It should be obvious to military leaders, steeped in the regimental system that is itself based on long-term loyalties that Agnipath pits batchmates against one another, creating incentives for each other's failure rather than for each other's success.
Instead of soldiers functioning like brothers-in-arms and comrades who put their lives on the line for each other, the structure of the Agnipath Yojana encourages compatriots to view each other as competitors, the success of one coming at the expense of another.
By Ajay Shukla
13/07/2022
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