Middle of 2024, when the nation votes to deny Prime Minister Narendra Modi a third straight term, India’s youth should go to the ballot and cast a vote against ‘Agniveer’ – deny Modi further time to play havoc with India’s defence forces. Would India have survived hostile neighbours in earlier times with “part time Agniveers” instead of the highly trained soldiers who didn’t have career worries?

The Indian Army could do without the stingy miserly mindset of the Gujarati deciding for them. This is not to cast aspersions against the hard working Gujarati. Sardar Patel was also Gujarati. But he wasn’t Narendra Modi. And lest the entire Modi clan turn up in court alleging insult to the Modis of the world, let it be known that there is only one Modi who has single-handedly killed India’s armed forces and it’s the man who is collecting country-specific awards worldwide.

Of course, keeping a standing army requires piles of dough, for salaries and pensions; and money to buy and replenish defence requirements and other resources. But it is a hostile neighbourhood. And there is nothing and nobody more precious for the defence of India than a trained and committed soldier armed with single-minded focus. India’s soldiers shouldn’t be always worrying about career and family.

Also, the “four-year term” of an Agniveer is an insult to the fighting soldier. Reports say sizable numbers of “Agniveer“ are quitting. Recruitment has become difficult. Nobody fancies retiring at ages 22-23-24 and 25 when there is no pension or even pride to assuage the broken dreams. Shortened careers leave an entire family/community ecosystem disheartened and adversely-hit. And that will include worried parents of the unemployed 'Agniveer' and his sweetheart who will dread marrying and living with an Agniveer without a calling. Retired soldiers of before the Agniveer scheme are also seething with anger. Where have all the regiments gone; whatever will happen to regimental pride?

There is also the fear of a solid number of unemployed youth with expertise in the use of small arms roaming the countryside after being thrown out on the completion of the four year tenure – once a mercenary always a mercenary! There are reports of retired Indian army men fighting the Russians in Ukraine. Whoever advised Prime Minister Narendra Modi to replace regular soldiers with ‘Agniveer’ must have been playing video games, like the PUB-G. The day the Chinese PLA crosses the LAC in bulk numbers, the Modi government will be running for cover with the half-hearted and ill-trained Agniveer left holding the gun.

The good news is India’s demographic dividend will be the end of the Modi dispensation. And the 'Agniveer' is the perfect weapon to deny the Modi regime another term. Rahul Gandhi should forget ‘Mohabbat ka Dukaan’ and all that sentimental mush. Instead, he should lead an army of anti-Agniveer voters against the BJP. ‘Agniveer’ is the kind of issue which should be taken up in earnest and campaigned India-wide. There is something about the soldier that stirs up a deep-seated fervour. Tens of thousands of families India-wide affected adversely by the Agniveer ecosystem have today become a solid vote-bank to tap. They are in every parliamentary and assembly constituency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be halted in his tracks to save India’s armed teeth. Already, there is the depressing feeling of something gone lacking in our armed forces post-Agniveer. India’s old enemy Pakistan boasts of a professional full-term soldiers' army. India’s Enemy No.1 China’s PLA is no ragtag group of mercenaries. Why would Indian soldiers with three, two or one year of service left voluntarily choose to die for the country when youth his age are making easy money and living relatively easy-going lives doing civil jobs at home and abroad?

With the Agniveer, there is no honour left in joining the “army”. Last heard, the Gorkhas have decided the Indian Army is not for them. If ‘mercenary’ is the operative word, why limit yourself to the Indian Army, when there is the whole big bad world outside? The problem with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is that for far too long in his life he was on the loose with only nonsense to hear, talk and watch. “I think, therefore I am” has its downside.

Priyanka Vadra Gandhi’s promise to do away with Agniveer is an excellent election plank to fight general elections 2024 with. It’s got an emotional ring to it. It is inexorably linked with the nation’s youth – the demographic dividend. And every state in the Indian Union has youth wanting a long and productive career in the Army, Air Force and Navy. No man, commoner or Prime Minister, should even be allowed to finish off India’s Armed Forces. This is one time when throwing the baby out with the bathwater would be welcomed by the vast majority of India’s demographic dividend! (IPA Service)