The Agnipath scheme, launched in June 2022 for the recruitment of soldiers, sailors and airmen for a four-year period, had surprised the Indian Army, while it was a “bolt out of the blue” for the Navy and Air Force, former Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane writes in his upcoming memoir, Four Stars of Destiny.
“We in the army were taken by surprise by this turn of events, but for the navy and air force, it came like a bolt from the blue,” Gen. Naravane writes, stating that it took him some time to explain to the Navy and Air Force chiefs that the initial proposal he had made in 2020 — a model titled ‘Tour of Duty’ which eventually became the changed format of the Agnipath scheme — had only been for recruitment in a limited manner for the Army, and that he had been equally surprised by its unexpected broader implementation.
