Not all heroes wear capes, some wear honesty — like this retd Army jawan

Havildar Samar Pandey works as a security guard in the State Bank of India branch in Pankhajur in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district. A customer of the bank left the cash outside the branch which was spotted by Pandey who immediately took custody of it.

The customer returned after three hours searching for the cash and was relieved to be handed the same by Pandey. The good samaritan act came to light when Dr Priyanka Shukla, Collector of Kanker District tweeted about it with a photograph of the security guard.

The three rows of medal ribands of Samar Pandey caught the eye of the military community on Twitter who recognised that he was wearing a ribands denoting service in high altitude areas, Siachen Glacier, Counter Insurgency operation, Op Vijay (Kargil) Star, Op Vijay Medal and Op Parakram.

Speaking to The Indian Express Havildar Pandey said he had served for 18 years in the 19th Battalion of The Brigade of the Guards. “I have now been working as a security guard for nine years after my retirement. I did not want any publicity for my action but the man whom I returned his money insisted on taking my photograph. I never realised this would go so viral,” he said.

Comments like ‘Once a soldier, always a soldier’ and many others appreciating his devotion to duty inundated the social media. It is learnt that the District Collector telephoned Pandey to congratulate him for his efforts and may felicitate him for the same too.

The incident, however, also brought to light the painful fact that a soldier with nearly 20 years of service with wide experience in war and counter insurgency is only found fit to be do a job of a security guard in a bank. With the terms of service of Jawans having undergone a change, what may be the employment prospects of Agniveers in civilian life after only 4 years of military service?

Former JAG branch officer files PIL challenging Agniveer scheme

A former officer of Army’s Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) branch, Col Amit Kumar (retd) has filed a PIL in Delhi High Court challening the Agnipath/Agnivee recruitment scheme alleging that it jeopardised the security of the nation and that it was exploitative of the unemployed youth of the country.

In his petition, Col Amit Kumar has pointed towards the lack of efficient training of new recruits under Agnipath scheme. “The training under previous scheme was for one year and in this scheme of entry it has been reduced to six months. The reduction without any experimentation will lead to reduction of efficiency of the forces. There has been no study conducted on a small number of people first and then implemented completely. In a sudden and haphazard way, the scheme is being implemented wholly for recruitment even though the government knows that no risk can be taken due to the geopolitical situation and tension in the borders of China and Pakistan,” the petition states.

The petition also highlights that ‘weaponised’ youth can pose a threat to the internal security. It maintains that the youth who join the forces are mostly from rural region and some rural areas fall under the red corridor (naxal prone areas). “The youth who are unhappy with the government due to unemployment, lack of benefits etc. after the training may join hands with the anti-India forces and pick up arms against the state,” the PIL says.

Stating that the scheme promoted lack of camaraderie and coordination between the soldiers, the petition said that in the army the nature of operations is in such a way that there needs to be good rapport between the soldiers and the bond between soldiers takes a certain amount of time to build. And within those 4 years’ time it would not be possible to build that rapport.

It goes on to add that the Seva Nidhi Package and other benefits of the scheme are not enough to motivate the youth to work with full commitment in operations. “It’s a well establishment fact that army is not a mere employment scheme and it requires a highly patriotic, courageous mindset to put your lives to risk for the nation. The soldier while he puts his life to risk atleast expects his basic needs to be in place. If a soldier is not convinced, he will not get much benefit he would not have that zeal and enthusiasm required for the combat operations,” the PIL says.

Col Amit Kumar has argued that after this new scheme was introduced, the earlier selection of successful candidates stands cancelled which apart from being unfair is also illegal. Many candidates were shortlisted for the post of Airmen (IAF Airmen) in the Air Force under the notification released in 2019 but the recruitment process was pending due to Covid-19. But afterthe arrival of this new scheme Agnipath, Central Government cancelled the previous recruitments and their candidatures.