India’s defence establishment on Tuesday said that Agnipath was aimed at exploiting India’s “demographic dividend” — its young population — unmindful of the irony in the country’s youth having hit the streets protesting its introduction.

“The Agnipath scheme is a well-thought-out and well-researched scheme that has been implemented keeping in mind India’s unique demography,” Lieutenant General Anil Puri, the top military officer in charge of the scheme, said at a tri-services media briefing.

“No other country in the world has the demographic dividend that India (has). The army should make the most of it. The profile of soldiers will become youthful with this new scheme,” he added, stressing a point he had made on Sunday.

“All stakeholders were involved in finalising the scheme and it should have been implemented in the 1990s itself.”

Retired generals have, however, accused the government and the military brass of introducing the programme, which mandates four-year recruitment to the armed forces, without consulting stakeholders.

Many military veterans have slammed the scheme as “ill-thought-out”, saying it would sound the “death knell for the armed forces” by damaging their ethos, professionalism and morale. The young protesters’ grouse is that the scheme would leave them jobless after four years.

Puri, who had on Sunday ruled out a rollback of Agnipath, did not address these questions as he tried to create an impression of continuity, implying the scheme would not change anything drastically.

“The recruitment process will remain unchanged and the traditional regimentation system in the military will continue,” he said.

Recruitment under the Agnipath scheme would be carried out in a transparent manner, and the recruits would be eligible for gallantry awards like all others, he said.

He reaffirmed that the applicants must give an undertaking saying they were not part of the violent protests, repeating a veiled threat to the protesters he had issued on Sunday.

“There is no place for arson and violence in the armed forces,” he said.

The first batch of the Agnipath recruits is expected to be trained and deployed to the units by July next year.

Doval stand

National security adviser Ajit Doval, fielded by the government on Tuesday to defend Agnipath, too said there was no question of rolling the scheme back.

He said it was not a standalone scheme. “Reforms are needed for a better future. We are a young nation with the oldest army,” he said.

“When PM Modi came to power in 2014, one of his prime priorities was how to make India secure and strong. That required many avenues, many steps – (a) multitude of them,” news agency ANI quoted him as saying.

“Security is a dynamic concept. It cannot remain static. It is only in relation with the environment in which we have to protect our national interest and national assets.”

On the violent protests, Doval said that raising one’s voice was permitted in a democracy but vandalism and violence were not.

“FIRS have been lodged, (the) accused have been identified and after due process we can say who were the forces behind it,” he said.