Fact check: Govt is not privatising Army through Agnipath

New Delhi, Jun 18: Despite the government clearing myths around 'Agnipath', there have been lots of confusion and rumours pertaining to the new recruitment scheme. One such claim doing rounds is that the government was planning to privatise the Army through the scheme.

A YouTube channel called 'Sach Tak' News stated in a video that the Centre is pushing the army towards privatisation through 'Agnipath.' The recruitment will be handled by some private agency which will hire and fire youths in a year, the anchor is seen claiming in the clip.

Is it true?
Press Bureau of Information has put out a clarification that the recruitment will not be done by the private agency. "A claim is being made in a YouTube video that the recruitments in Army through Agnipath scheme will be conducted by some private agency," "This claim is false. No such announcement has been made by the Government of India," it added.

Not just the YouTube channel, the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee media analyst PH Neeralakeri has accused the BJP government has resorted to strengthening privatisation in the garb of providing short-term employment to youths in the army through the 'Agnipath scheme', The Hindu reported.

However, the Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, said the Air Force recruitment will begin on June 24. "Happy to announce that the upper age limit (for recruitment) has been revised to 23 years. This will benefit the youth. The recruitment process for the Indian Air Force will begin on June 24," he said.

The Army Chief Gen. Manoj Pande said the training of the first "Agniveers" will begin in December 2022 and their active service will begin in the middle of 2023. "The recruitment process will begin soon. Within the next two days, a notification will be issued on the official website. After that, our Army recruitment organisations will declare a detailed schedule of registration and rally," the Army Chief added.

"As far as the question of Agniveers going to recruitment training centres is concerned, the training of the first Agniveers will begin this December (in 2022) at the centres. The active service will commence in the middle of 2023," he said.

In all these statements, there is no mention of hiring people from some private agencies. Hence, this claim can be termed fake.