Central trade unions, farmers' organisations affiliated with the Samyukt Kisan Morcha and outfits of agriculture workers pledged support to the nationwide protests against the Agnipath scheme of recruitment in defence forces. The organisations equated the protests with farmers' struggle against the three farm laws and urged the Centre to withdraw Agnipath the way it repealed the three Acts. They have also decided to draft a joint strategy in support of the agitations at national level.
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions expressed serious concern and shock at the move for recruitment in armed forces of the country on fixed term contract without any provisions of pension. "Such a retrograde move is going to severely compromise as well as negatively affect the quality of employment and efficiency of our armed forces, militating against the country’s security as a whole and also the quality of employment, determination and professionalism, much to the detriment of our national interests," CITU general secretary Tapan Sen said in a statement. He said the young soldiers so trained as per armed forces’ standard and deployed under the Agnipath scheme would be terminated from service after four years and thrown into an uncertain future, creating serious hazardous implications for the society as a whole under present brand of authoritarian and divisive governance.
‘Great sufferings’
All India Trade Union Congress general secretary Amarjeet Kaur said the string of policy decisions by the Narendra Modi government over the past eight years had put ordinary people to great sufferings. "The list is unending and the result is an ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor, unbearable price rise, all-time high unemployment and blatant lawlessness by the government itself using bulldozers against suspects. Agnipath is another step taking the nation into an uncertain future, with unknown consequences," she said.
Harbhajan Singh Sidhu, General Secretary, Hind Mazdoor Sabha said such a scheme was being launched when unemployment and inflation had reached their peak. “The decision is cruel joke on unemployed youth, another step to encourage ‘contractualisation’ or precarious work. It will induct an ill-trained and ill-motivated soldier and will discharge a disappointed and unhappy youth, who would not be termed ex-servicemen and will not be given any benefits. The government is playing with their future,” Mr. Sidhu said.
The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) said the Agnipath scheme — camouflaged with ultra-nationalist rhetoric — is a clear prescription to smuggle in casualisation in the armed forces. "A government which has betrayed its 2014 promise of 2 crore jobs every year is now trying to fool the unemployed youth by announcing a fixed term contract (four years) without pension. Historically youth from the peasant families constitute a major chunk of soldiers in the armed forces. This historical and organic connection between the peasantry and the armed forces was evident in the open and subtle support expressed by several serving and retired armed personnel to the historic farmers’ struggle against the draconian farm laws," said AIKS leaders Hannan Mollah and Ashok Dhawale.
The All India Agricultural Workers Union and the AIKS together decided to hold protests against the scheme on June 21. "It is a matter of fact that the rural poor, particularly from downtrodden sections, prefer army recruitment as their choice as they could not afford higher studies which will pave their way into high earning employment circuits. This already created a huge gap between the employees in sectors of day-to-day economic importance," said AIAWU general secretary B. Venkat.
