How Agnipath Impacted Lok Sabha Elections

The Indian Army is the second largest army in the world. It has over 1.3 million soldiers. And over 3 million pensioners. It has to set aside a larger chunk of the defence budget every few years to pay pensioners. The Agneepath scheme aims at reducing the pension burden by recruiting soldiers to serve only for four years instead of 15 years. The number of soldiers eligible for pension would be reduced over the years. The scheme was launched by the defence ministry in 2022 but has become politically contentious. The opposition Congress planned to roll back the scheme if it was voted to power. Besides the prestige of a military career, Army recruitment under the old scheme promises life-long social support.