Review And Scrap The Agni Veer Scheme : Short Term Contract Soldiers Will Corrode The centuries’ old Patriotic Culture Of The Entire Armed Forces.
Rajiv Upadhyay 
When we allow ‘ the know all Babus’ to interfere and run the armed forces they inevitably ruin the motivation and patriotic culture of armed forces. Army is not just another job .The Agni Veer scheme is one such manifestation of Babus’ dangerously inappropriate misadventure which like acid can corrode the fine patriotic culture of the entire armed forces which is produced by centuries of warrior or Kshatriya traditions of say Rajputana Rifles and other such regiments.
The Agni Veers will not be sure of their future . They will be worried about their life and earning capacity after four years. Some of them will marry and have children . In any war most of them will first save their limbs and life and not risk big injuries or in capacitation . This will make all the soldiers to ultimately question the validity of patriotism which is just an emotion. A soldier will become at best a traffic constable if not a peon, in mentality .Like a few rotten apples, Agni Veers can ultimately make the whole basket rotten .
The entire concept of reducing our already low expenditure on armed forces , by generating savings to buy arms is highly inappropriate . This is a repeat of the 1962 thinking. In 1962, under Krishna Menon and obedient and therefore meritorious ( ?) General Kaul we were making kettles and houses by using soldiers and the results are for all to see !
Do we not again hear the call to select armed forces Chiefs on merit and not seniority ? We will only select obedient yes men like General Kauls , not capable officers like General Manekshaw. Such obedient Generals will readily agree for Agni Veer or selling army land or buy weapons chosen on criteria other than merit or such ideas of Babuish genius. Do we not remember Air Vice Marshal Manjit Sokhon’s famous letter to Shri Badal, the CM of Punjab, to recommend him for chief’s post? That is how merit is defined in politics and Babuland !
Let us save the only surviving great national institution ie the Army including navy and air force by not interfering in their centuries of proud traditions.
Beginning must be made by abandoning the biggest mistake of all the Agni Veer scheme, after review.
