The announced reform of the Supply system to the army of India provoked protests in several regions of the country. The service life is planned to be reduced to four years. Protesters are unhappy with the prospect for 75% of conscripts to become unemployed in four years and lose state preferences, Kommersant reports.
A reform called Agnipath involves a reduction in the service life in the Armed Forces to four years for most draftees. Earlier, the average service life in the Indian army was 17 years.
The Indian Express newspaper reports that the protesters set fire to two trains in Bihar, blocking the railway message in the city of Bihiya. Yesterday, June 16, the local authorities turned off the mobile Internet in one of the Kharian’s state in northern India and tried to disperse the demonstrators in the air.
CNN notes that the police opened fire to restrain the protesters after they threw stones at the house of a senior official. Representatives of the opposition also set fire to the office of the Bharatiya Party party, in which the acting Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. The reform of the Armed Forces was declared by his government.
The Cabinet of Ministers explained the change in the procedure for recruiting conscripts to the Indian army with the need to reduce pension costs and reduce the average age of the personnel. “Where will we go, having worked for only four years? We will be left without shelter in four years of service. So we blocked the roads,” one of the protesters in the dialogue with Ani.
explained his motivation.