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NEW DELHI – India unveiled a plan this week aimed at modernizing its military to protect against external threats. Instead, it sparked a wave of domestic violence.
Protesters across the country set fire to trains on Friday, pelted employees with stones and stormed the homes of government leaders after the Indian military announced a new recruitment policy to reduce wage and pension costs. At least one man was killed after police in Secunderabad, near south Hyderabad, opened fire on protesters, according to the Hindustan Times, citing local police. In several cities, protesters closed highways and forced the cancellation of dozens of trains.
The chaos, which has spread from northern Bihar to southern Telangana and engulfed at least eight other states, has highlighted economic frustrations – and political sensitivity around public jobs – in a country where nearly a quarter of people under the age of 30 are unemployed and is the state is often seen as the only hope for a permanent job.
Under the new policy, called “Agnipath” or Path of Fire, the armed forces will recruit 46,000 employees under the age of 21 each year, but will not be obliged to detain them after concluding a four-year contract. Officials say the scheme will introduce men and women during their physical peak, while reducing the cost of a growing army of approximately 1.4 million active personnel, making it the country’s second-largest employer and one of the largest. the world’s largest standing armies. Although India’s defense budget has remained relatively flat, more than a quarter of the money now goes to pensions and spending is rising every year.
Proponents argue that by thinning military ranks, India can buy weapons and technology to compete better with rivals such as China, which is vying for its own modernization bid while decommissioning hundreds of thousands of People’s Liberation Army soldiers. . In India, however, politics is much more complex.
“The problem here is: with a limited budget, you can either pay for troops or import technology,” said Pravin Sony, a defense analyst and former military officer who says India needs more modern weapons to fight. competes with China. “But in India, where there is so much unemployment, [the military] is also a major source of employment. So whatever you do will irritate a constituency. “
In Bihar, a poor state experiencing some of the worst unrest, a mob stormed the home of the deputy prime minister. In Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, social media videos show police and railway workers struggling to extinguish burning trains with hoses and bottled water. A video from a highway in Uttar Pradesh shows a man running while holding a baby while stones blew air into police.
Although the military is seen in many countries as a source of livelihood and career for the poor, it plays a particularly important role in modern India. There are many stories in the province of families sending each of their sons to serve. In the cities, special preparatory schools are full of teenagers hoping to pass the army entrance exams.
Gaurav Kumar Singh, a 19-year-old from the village of Patila in Bihar, has long dreamed of joining the army. For three years he had been preparing for his exams and would run 6 miles in circles with 20 other boys from the village to prepare for the fitness test.
“It was all in vain,” he said Friday, explaining he felt a mixture of frustration and anxiety.
“In rural areas, if you serve in the army, your social and economic status changes automatically,” he said. “You get the match you want for marriage. You get easy loans to build a house. You have a steady income with which you can help your family financially. The army was a lifelong security package for a family in rural Bihar.
Now, Singh said, he can enter the four-year program, but there is no guarantee of work after that. “What if I’m not elected in four years?” What am I going to do then? ”He asked.
For India, defense budget constraints have implications far beyond the village of Singh. After the Obama administration, U.S. officials have sought to increase U.S. arms sales to India, but they are struggling to compete, in part because Russian offerings are cheaper.
The United States sees India as one of its most important partners in Asia, but India’s dependence on Russian weapons – and its refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – has become an irritant in US-India relations.
As the chaos spread across the country, government leaders and their supporters mobilized to give a positive impetus to the recruitment campaign. Defense Minister Rajnat Singh defended the policy as a “golden opportunity” for more Indian youth to serve their country, and said the government would raise the age limit for recruits to 23 in one year. Other officials suggest that even a short stay in the army will benefit job seekers who want to pursue another career, such as policing.
Politicians and retired officers, meanwhile, have been hotly discussing military priorities – and the role it should play in Indian society.
“The armed forces are a volunteer force. This is not a charity, “Malik, a former army chief, told NDTV VP.
But retired Lieutenant General Kamal Davar, a former chief of defense intelligence, said India needs to maintain a large professional army because of its precarious position between longtime rivals Pakistan and China. Military service is not a short-term job, he said, but a vocation.
“It takes a long time to become experienced, trained and ready for battle,” he said in an interview. “The military is not just shooting with a rifle. It’s not an easy job. “
Irfan reported from Srinagar.
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