At Army coaching Ground Zero, Agnipath turns business cold, heats up poll campaign

Located in west Rajasthan, Kuchaman, which falls in the Nagaur Lok Sabha constituency, started taking shape as a coaching hub for Army candidates sometime around 2009. Soon, students were trooping in from all over Rajasthan, as well as Haryana and western UP. At its height, over 2 lakh students were enrolled in the town’s “defence academies”, many of them staying in hostels.

Vinod Chaudhary, the founder of the Kuchaman Defence Academy, the oldest such in the city, says that at one time, “we had 1,500 students living in our hostels”. “We would give admissions on the basis of the students’ board marks.” Now, Chaudhary says, they are down to 150.

Chaudhary blames it on the change of the Army recruitment process with the Agnipath scheme, launched in June 2022. Under it, those not joining as commission officers are now recruited into the Armed Forces for a period of four years after a six-month training. At the end of the tenure, up to 25% of them continue, subject to merit and organisational requirements, while the others are relieved with a lump sum amount of around Rs 11.71 lakh, plus benefits.

As per figures provided by the Army, while two batches of 40,000 Agniveers have been deployed so far after completing their training, training for 20,000 more began in November 2023. In the Navy, three batches of 7,385 Agniveers have completed their training, and in the IAF, 4,955. Army officials said there has been no drop in the overall recruitment, with the pre-Agnipath numbers being about 55,000-60,000 a year.

Soon after the scheme was launched, there were protests in states which send a large number of men into the forces over “the lack of job security” under Agnipath. While the BJP tided over the discontent in the Assembly elections, resentment is boiling over in these parts as the impact of the changed recruitment process is felt.

Chaudhary elaborates how the economy of Kuchaman, a town with a population of about 80,000, expanded to accommodate the influx, with the number of defence academies multiplying to around 200. Now just six remain open.

Chaudhary says it doesn’t make sense for students to spend time and money on coaching for a job that they may lose in four years. Instead, they are trying for other government posts. He says the few students still coming in are those from the Humanities stream or from Hindi-medium schools, with fewer job options.

The owner of Bhagat Singh Hostel, Chotu Ram Gadwal, says that having raised all this infrastructure, many of them are struggling to pay back EMIs. “I have 100 beds in my hostel, of which 60% are currently vacant. Only 10 of the hostelers are here studying for the Agniveer exam.”

Sainik Chhatrawas owner Manoj Kumawat says he is now advertising for hostelers; once he had advanced booking.

In these dry regions of the Marwar and Shekhawati regions of Rajasthan – including the Lok Sabha constituencies of Nagaur, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Pali and Jalore, of which the first three vote on April 19 – farming has become increasingly tough due to a depleted groundwater table. The defence forces are a lucrative option – and have been for a long time for communities such as the Jats, Rajputs, Gurjars and Yadavs here.

Ramesh Lakhara, who is in second-year college, says that with the Agnipath scheme, the government has “cheated” the youth. A youngster of Jayal Tehsil, who does not want to give his name, asks what choice do “Hindi-medium” students like him have.

Opposition parties have been highlighting this issue in their rallies. Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) leader Hanuman Beniwal, who is contesting from Nagaur as a Congress ally, has organised several protests on the issue and raises it in his election speeches.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Beniwal, who won from Nagaur in 2019 as a BJP ally, calls Agnipath a move to “break the backs of the martial communities of the country”. Linking it to the farmer protests, he says: “The children of farmers from Rajasthan, Haryana, UP and Punjab are the ones who join the forces in the highest numbers. So, Agnipath was introduced to demean our farmers and soldiers.”

Addressing a rally at Anupgarh, Rajasthan, on Thursday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi promised that if the party formed a government at the Centre, it would scrap the “anti-youth” Agnipath scheme and provide them employment.

The BJP, which is usually very voluble about its government’s schemes, is strikingly quiet on Agnipath. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh did not mention it at his public meetings in Bikaner and Jhunjhunu. At a press conference in Jaipur, he said: “We will not do injustice to any Agniveer… Any policy is subject to change as per requirement. So, if necessary, we can amend the Agnipath policy.”

Vijay Singh, the BJP MLA from Nawa, which is a part of the Nagaur Lok Sabha seat, told The Indian Express that the adverse impact of Agniveer is exaggerated. “Yes, Kuchaman’s economy has been affected, but there are many other policies of the BJP which have benefited the public… Plus, this one scheme will not be a deciding factor, as at the national level people still want Narendra Modi as Prime Minister,” Singh says.

The BJP candidate from Nagaur is Jyoti Mirdha, who was earlier in the Congress and is the granddaughter of Nathuram Mirdha, an influential Jat leader.

In the November 2023 Rajasthan Assembly polls, which the BJP won by a big margin, the Congress had won four Assembly segments in the Nagaur Lok Sabha constituency and the BJP two. While one seat had gone to an Independent, Beniwal had won Khinwsar by 2,059 votes. The RLP contested independently in 2023.

Meanwhile, the still functional coaching institutes in Kuchaman city are thinking of shifting to NEET or JEE classes. However, as Chaudhary points out, “Sikar, around 100 km away, is already a big hub for NEET coaching. So it will be difficult.”