Why wait till Agnipath? Military veterans demand statistics

CHENNAI: Industry leaders, including Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra, RPG Enterprises chairman Harsh Goenka and Biocon Ltd chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, have come out in support of the Agnipath recruitment scheme.

However, military veterans have been asking the industry leaders who have come out in support of the government’s Agnipath recruitment scheme in the armed forces to provide facts and data showing how many ex-servicemen they had employed till date in their respective corporate firms.

In a hot strike response to Anand Mahindra’s tweet supporting the four-year military recruitment scheme where he wrote the Mahindra Group welcomes the opportunity to recruit the trained, capable Agniveers, former navy personnel and 1971 war hero Arun Prakash said: “Why await this new scheme? Has the Mahindra Group, so far, reached out to thousands of highly skilled & disciplined ex-Servicemen (Jawans & Officers), retiring every year & desperately seeking a second career? It would be nice to get some statistics from your Group.”

Col Salim Durrani tweeted: “Dear Mr Mahindra, nearly 60-70000 fully trained soldiers retire year on year. If I may ask, how many of these do you presently absorb? Any statistics. We’ll come to Agniveers later when the time comes.” Replying to Anand Mahindra’s tweet where he wrote about large potential for employment of Agniveers in corporate sector.

Though the Centre has announced 10% quota for in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), Ministry of Defence and Defence Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), the official records show a big shortfall in the number of ex-servicemen recruited in government jobs as compared to the vacancies reserved for them.

These instances have resulted in military veterans and various e-service men who have been denied of jobs, coming out with their grievances on social media questioning the corporate houses and the government.