Agnipath Day 3: Protests intensify, Centre stands its ground; 1 killed in police fire at Secunderabad Railway Station [key points]

The protests over BJP government's new military recruitment policy entered its third consecutive day with no signs of abating. 

One person was killed and three others injured in the police firing on youths protesting at the Secunderabad railway station on Friday against the Central government's new military recruitment policy.

Violence rocked the railway station here as hundreds of youth went on a rampage, setting afire East Coast Express. Several bogies were gutted.

Raising slogans against the Central government, the protesters also torched bogies of another train on the station, stalls, display boards and other railway property. They also dumped parcel articles on the tracks and set them afire.

The protesters, who were raising slogans of 'Jai jawan Jai kisan' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' ,demanded that the government scrap the recently announced scheme and continue the existing system of recruitment.

Even Bihar and Uttar Pradesh continued to bear the brunt of protests that further intensified with trains being set on fire on Friday morning.

The protests which started largely in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh spread to BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and parts of Haryana, where phone, internet and SMS services were suspended for 24 hours after a few reported incidents of stone pelting and violence by protesting citizens.

The protesting youth gets violent

As a means of registering their protest, the mob resorted to violence and destruction of public property. Two coaches of the Jammu-Tawi express train were set on fire in Samastipur district. Bihar was worse off with trains being set ablaze, window panes of buses smashed and street lights broken on Thursday.

On Friday morning, the agitated youth blocked roads and railway tracks at several junctions across the state. A few students, reportedly, even resorted to stone pelting and arson in the Begusarai district. While in Uttar Pradesh too, a mob set a train coach on fire at the railway station in Ballia. 

Opposition parties criticise the policy

The new recruitment scheme has also come in for sharp criticism from the opposition with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi indulging in word play by urging PM Modi to not take agnipareeksha (a trial by fire) of their patience and making them walk on agnipath (the path of fire). Samajwadi party leader Akhilesh Yadav called the scheme "fatal" for the country's future and a negligent attitude being adopted.

BSP supremo Mayawati also hit out at the centre by saying that people were already afflicted with proverty, inflation and unemployment and centre's wrong policies. She tweeted, "The youth of the nation are angry and dissatisfied. The government is limiting the soldiers' tenure to four years to wash its hands off pension benefits, which is grossly unfair for the future of rural youth and their families."

What is the scheme?

On Tuesday, the government unveiled the military recruitment scheme called Agnipath. The scheme, which is for the recruitment of soldiers in the Army, Navy and the Air Force, makes the employment of youth largely on a four-year short-term contractual basis. As per the scheme, during the four years of service, a soldier's monthly salary would start from a paltry sum of Rs 21,000, after a deduction of Rs 9,000 towards Agniveer Corpus. Which means that after four years, a soldier will get Rs 11.71 lakh as Seva Nidhi Package.

What are the objections raised?

The scheme, as soon as it was announced, triggered criticism from most of the retired armed forces personnel who called the scheme, "a disaster" for the Armed Forces. Major Gen (Dr) GD Bakshi SM, VSM (retd), tweeted, "Was flabbergasted by the Agniveer scheme. I thought initially it was a trial being done on a pilot basis. This is an across the board change to convert Indian Armed Forces to a short tenure quasi-conscript force like the Chinese. For God's sake, please don't do it."

Government continues to defend itself

Calling the policy, "transformative," meanwhile, the government continues to defend its stance. Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted in support of the scheme, "The recruitment process in the Army had been suffering for the past two years due to the coronavirus pandemic and PM Modi has taken a sensitive decision and showed concern towards the youth of the nation."

The government even put up a ten-point list in defence of Agnipath saying that the recruits will not find themselves in the lurch after completing four years in the military. Following the mass protests, the Centre raised the age limit for Agnipath recruitment from 21 to 23, as a, "one-time waiver."

So far, the only outcome of protests. With several army veterans pleading the centre to roll back the scheme, political pressure mounting and protests intensifying, will the government blink? The answer can be looked up in other schemes by the same government which attracted mass ire of the citizens. It will not be easy and certainly not happen instantly.