Major General Yash Mor (Retd)
Defence expert
"This is a non-implementable scheme. It will take at least 6 months to recruit the first cadet. There are a lot of issues with human resources, and training and just calling them Agniveer and Agnipath will not do. It is a disaster the day nation starts looking at military recruitment from the point of view of economic savings.
"How would you judge which 25 per cent to be absorbed and which 75 per cent to be sent back? There is no parameter and four years is too short. We cannot provide them with specialisation or training. So we will have thousands of young people out in the streets, totally disgruntled. After four years, they cannot go back to college and study. They cannot upskill themselves and no one would skill them up in the forces. It is only for say.
Also Read: Here's how India's future-ready soldier would look like
"It looks to be a very big HR failure in the long run. There will be a negative impact on the forces. They will be viewed from a different angle. Can we deploy them on secret duty or can they be given confidential tasks?"
"Once we throw them out of the force after four years, what will be their loyalty to the defence establishment, which has not taken them back. So I would say from the security, morale, training, and HR points of view it is a non-implementable task. For specialised units like armoured, mechanised, EME, signal, infantry, engineers and air defence, they need seven-eight years to get some kind of specialisation.
"On youths who are awaiting call letters, there are no words for them. They should have been inducted first and are already part of the process for the last two-and-a-half years. Today, you mark my word. They are saying that the first recruitment will be held within 90 days, but I am saying it will take 180 days to recruit the first cadet.
"It is not some Bollywood movie being made... bombed out of the screen carrying an AK-47... getting snapped. It's not good. The very sad thing you could see is that it was forced upon them (forces)."