Super reform? Or super disaster? 4 generals on the raging Agnipath controversy

Super reform? Or super disaster? 4 generals on the raging Agnipath controversy

20 June 2022

| Enquiry

Have we bitten a bullet? Or delivered a self-wound?

Super reform? Or super disaster?

A younger fitter tech savvy army? Or one hollowed out of prestige, promise & battle readiness?

The Modi government’s controversial new army recruitment scheme — Agnipath — has quite literally set the country on fire. Triggering heated debate & protests.

So how will this huge gamble — announced with customary suddenness — play out?

4 decorated combat hardened veterans — AIR VICE MARSHALL RAJESH ISSER; Lt GENERAL DS HOODA; Lt GENERAL VINOD BHATIA; Lt GENERAL SURENDRAN KULKARNI — take on the many thorny questions that arise.

Will Agnipath transform India’s youth into an idealistic resource pool? Or will it militarise civil society? Will it enable selection of the best, or has the army been turned into an internship turnstile?

Well thought out move? Or rash speculation?

It’s tough to get more incisive insight than this.