While countrywide protests against the Agnipath military recruitment scheme are raging, several industrialists have promised to offer jobs to Agniveers, the soldiers who will be recruited into the armed forces for a period of four years. The scheme plans to demobilise 75% of the recruited troops after four years without a pension, sparking concerns over the demobilised Agniveers’ employability.
Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra on Monday, June 20 promised to offer jobs to Agniveers after they are demobilised. He wrote on Twitter, saying “When the scheme was mooted last year I stated-and repeat-the discipline and skills Agniveers gain will make them eminently employable”. He said he is saddened by the violence around the Agnipath program.
He added, “The Mahindra Group welcomes the opportunity to recruit such trained and capable young people.”
When a Twitter user asked the industrialist which jobs Mahindra Group would give to Agniveers, Mahindra responded, “Large potential for employment of Agniveers in the Corporate Sector. With leadership, teamwork, and physical training, Agniveers provide market-ready professional solutions to industry, covering the full spectrum from operations to administration & supply chain management.”
Within a few hours of Mahindra’s announcement, the chairman of RPG Enterprises Harsh Goenka expressed his intent to offer jobs to the discharged Agniveers.
Several other industrialists have supported the Agnipath scheme, saying it would benefit the industry by providing “trained and disciplined youth”.
Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran said that the Agnipath scheme would help the industry, including the Tata group, get a pool of disciplined and trained youth.
“We recognise the potential of the Agniveers and welcome the opportunity this represents,” he said in a statement.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the founder-chairperson of pharma major Biocon, said Agniveers will have a distinct advantage in recruitment in the industrial job market.
The past record of India Inc’s hiring spree
Several military veterans, opposition leaders and journalists have asked the industrialists to furnish data showing how many ex-servicemen they had employed in the past in their respective corporate houses.
Former Air Vice-Marshal Manmohan Bahadur wrote on Twitter, tagging Mahindra: “Sir, could we have some stats as requested by the ex Naval Chief (Prakash)? I have retired after forty years in service listening to such promises.”
Abhishek Kumar, who said he was a former Navy engineer, said he had approached the Mahindra Group for a job but did not receive any response.
“I am ex-navy engineer sailor, released from Navy on June 31, 2017. I approached Mahindra group for a suitable job but they did not reply to my request. After 5 years still I am jobless and now suddenly all companies are ready to give jobs to Agniveers. What a joke,” he tweeted.
He added that he had no complaints with the government’s new recruitment policy but with “white lies being spread by the corporate sector that they will look after Agniveers after four years”.
Another ex-serviceman tweeted as saying: “Dear Mr Mahindra, nearly 60-70000 fully trained soldiers retire year on year. If I may ask, how many of these do you presently absorb? Any statistics. We’ll come to Agniveers later when the time comes.”
Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Singh Bishnoi has also asked industry veterans to disclose how many ex-servicemen do they currently have in their organisations.
What about government jobs?
Amid continuing protests and violence over the Agnipath scheme, the Union government has offered a slew of support measures to accommodate Agniveers in various government departments after their four-year service.
The government has announced a 10% reservation for discharged Agniveers in various jobs to pacify agitators against the lapsable Agnipath recruitment scheme. However, an Indian Express report says that there is a massive gap between the number of ex-servicemen who are hired for government jobs and the number of posts reserved for them.
The government’s plan to overhaul military recruitment – apparently to lower the age profile of servicemen – has sparked violent protests across the country. On Monday, a Bharat Bandh is being observed to protest the Agnipath scheme.
The government has made some concessions since the scheme was announced: it temporarily raised the upper age limit for Agnipath applicants to 23 and has announced a 10% quota for Agniveers in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), the Ministry of Defence and defence public sector undertakings (PSUs).
But existing quotas for ex-servicemen are far from being met, the Indian Express reports.
As per the latest data available (June 30, 2021) with the Directorate General (Resettlement) [DG(R)], under the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare of the MoD, ex-servicemen should make up 10% of Group C posts and 20% of Group D posts in Central government departments but only account for 1.29% and 2.66% respectively.
Service posts in the Union government are classified into four Groups: A, B, C and D. While Group ‘A’ posts are administrative and management oriented in ministries, Group ‘B’ posts are constituted of middle management workers. Group ‘C’ posts are for clerical work and Group ‘D’ employees perform maintenance and labour work.
In the CAPF too, there is an existing 10% quota for ex-servicemen in direct recruitment up to the level of assistant commandant (second-in-charge). But according to the Indian Express, ex-servicemen accounted for only 0.47% in Group C; 0.87% in Group B; and 2.20% in Group A posts in the overall strength of the CAPFs.
In Central PSUs too, the quota for ex-servicemen is not met, the newspaper reports. Though the reservation is fixed at 14.5% in Group C posts and 24.5% in Group D posts, ex-servicemen account for only 1.15% of the former and 0.3% of the latter strength in 94 of the 170 CPSUs for which data was available.
Public sector banks have also failed to meet the reservations for ex-servicemen, but performed better than the PSUs. Banks also have 14.5% reservation for ex-service for direct recruitment in Group C and 24.5% in Group D. They accounted for 9.10% in Group C and 21.34% in Group D across, according to the Indian Express.
This issue has been discussed at several meetings in the past, the newspaper said, including one held on June 2. The meeting, chaired by the secretary, Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, was attended by senior defence ministry officials and liaison officers appointed by various ministries or departments for the implementation of the reservation policy.
The directorate-general (resettlement) asked government departments to make efforts to increase the representation of ex-servicemen (ESM) “by way of filling the authorised vacancies”.
“Liaison Officer, DoP&T [Department of Personnel & Training] raised the need for coordinated efforts between training section (for ESM) and recruitment agencies in order to assess the need of the current job market requirements and train the ESM accordingly, as there are some vacancies lying vacant due to non-availability of candidates who possess the relevant skill for that particular job,” the minutes of the meeting say, according to the Indian Express.
The directorate-general (resettlement) cited three significant reasons why the reservation for ex-servicemen in government jobs is not being met: “Adequate number of ESM are not applying for these posts, adequate number of ESM are not qualifying for these posts, and DoPT orders regarding relaxed standards of selection are not being implemented by organisations.”
(Note: This is a compilation of two articles published in The Wire.)
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Meanwhile, farmers and workers have joined the youth in the agitation against the Agnipath scheme, reports Newsclick in 2 articles:
24 Jun 2022: On a day when registrations under the controversial Agnipath scheme began for at least one branch of the country’s armed forces, farmers, joined by workers, took to the streets in several states to press for the withdrawal of the Centre’s new armed forces recruitment policy.
At the call of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), demonstrations were held at block, village and district levels in many parts of the country on Friday. The call to protest was also supported by 10 Central Trade Unions.
The farmers’ organisation, which had earlier spearheaded the nationwide movement that ensured repealing of the three contentious farm legislations last year, said that the new scheme is part of a “wider campaign” of the Narendra Modi – led Central government to “establish company rule over agriculture.”
It demanded that President Ram Nath Kovind, the ceremonial commander-in-chief of the armed forces, ensure that the notification of military recruitment under the new plan is withdrawn and that the “regular recruitment” in the army is started immediately.
“… since the announcement of the Agnipath scheme, the anger of the youth has erupted on the streets. Many youths have committed suicide due to the shock. Demonstrations are taking place on the streets across the country. Unfortunately, this anger is also taking a violent turn in many places,” the SKM said in a memorandum submitted to President Kovind on Friday.
The Central government has done the work of “sprinkling salt and has made ridiculous announcements,” the farmers’ organisation further remarked in its memorandum, adding, “The chiefs of the three services have committed reprehensible acts of threatening the youth against their right to protest democratically.”
Thousands of youth took to the streets in states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh, among others, soon after the introduction of the Agnipath scheme to express their outrage over the new military recruitment plan.
All false cases registered against youths involved in anti-Agnipath protests should be withdrawn, while those arrested should be released, SKM urged on Friday. It further demanded that applicants for “any recruitment” should not be preconditioned to make an affidavit which deprives them of their right to democratic protest.
Western UP Farmers Support Youth
Thousands of farmers in western Uttar Pradesh (UP) gathered in their respective district collectorates on Friday in solidarity with youths protesting the short-term armed forces recruitment scheme Agnipath.
Following a call by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) to join the protest, farmers from Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Bijnor, Shamli, Saharanpur, Ghaziabad and other western UP districts reached their collectorates on Friday afternoon when they were stopped by the police.
Several prominent Khap leaders and ex-servicemen also participated in the protests. A memorandum addressed to President Ram Nath Kovind to immediately roll bank the “anti-youth” scheme was submitted at the district headquarters across the state.
Meanwhile, hundreds of farmer leaders were placed under house arrest hours before the demonstrations. They claimed that the police reached the houses of farmer leaders who had supported the Agnipath protesters.
“Farmers have always been standing shoulder to shoulder with the youth in this struggle. This scheme is not only playing with the national security and dreams of unemployed youth but also with the families of farmers. The jawan of this country is a uniformed farmer. Most of the soldiers are from farmer families. Army job is tied to the honour and economic strength of numerous farmer families. It is a matter of shame for the country that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who started his victory campaign by rallying ex-servicemen with the promise of ‘one rank, one pension’, has now launched this scheme of ‘no rank no pension’,” farmers gathered in Azamgarh told Newsclick.
Likewise, in Haryana, Friday’s protest saw women, students, including army aspirants and ex-servicemen, joining the farmers, claiming that the Agnipath scheme will “directly affect the peasantry.
Meanwhile, in Haryana, paidal yatra will be carried out in different districts in a campaign against the Agnipath scheme that is set to be joined by multiple mass organisations in the state, NewsClick has learnt.
(This is a compilation done by us from 2 articles: “After Youth, Farmers & Workers Take to Streets to Protest Against Agnipath Scheme” by Ronak Chhabra; and “Western UP Farmers Support Youth Against ‘No Rank, No Pension’ Scheme” by Abdul Alim Jafri.)
