The 200-year-old British Gorkha connection with Nepal, Indianised after Independence, is the unspoken lynchpin of bilateral relations, resulting in a big ex-servicemen community which, properly nurtured, acts as a pro-India constituency in times of political choices, especially when China’s competitive zeal is growing. (Express photo by Ravi Kanojia)The comments in September by the Chief of the Army Staff, General Manoj Pandey on the redistribution of vacancies for Gorkha recruitment under the Agnipath scheme to other army units should Nepal not take a call on time, would have been better not made. Nepal is engulfed in political turmoil as revisionist forces are pushing back against the massive political transformation in the country following the dismantling of the monarchy. Chief Justice Cholendra Rana is under virtual house arrest. President Bidya Devi Bhandari twice rejected the new citizenship bill and the Supreme Court issued a show cause notice to her. The general elections are scheduled for November 20, and Agnipath has been put on the back burner.
The 200-year-old British Gorkha connection with Nepal, Indianised after Independence, is the unspoken lynchpin of bilateral relations, resulting in a big ex-servicemen community which, properly nurtured, acts as a pro-India constituency in times of political choices, especially when China’s competitive zeal is growing. General Pandey’s visit to Nepal in September to be made Honorary General of the Nepal Army (the Nepali Army Chief is similarly recognised by India) is part of a unique post-Independence tradition. He made the avoidable remarks after a successful visit. Silence on sensitive political issues was advisable as he now wears two hats.
A day after he made the remarks, Nepal’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Sewa Lamsal, while briefing the media, said that a decision on Agnipath was not possible anytime soon, and certainly not before the elections. To be fair, the state relations committee of Nepal’s parliament did twice try to meet but the quorum was not achieved, reflecting their preoccupation with the upcoming elections. The Janata Samajbadi Party’s politburo member, a former Subedar Major in the Indian Army, Khem Jung Gurung told me that 98 per cent of Nepali parliamentarians do not favour Agnipath’s four-year recruitment scheme.
Some concerns include the release into society of youth trained in warfare at a time when dissident and secessionist groups in Nepal are lying doggo. Nepal’s labour law permits the engagement of youth only after 17and a half years whereas Agniveers will be recruited at 17 years. A soldier will be called Agniveer, not Gorkha. There is doubt about the number of Nepali Gorkhas who will be re-enlisted among the 25 per cent demobilised. Questions have also been raised about the declining quota for Nepali Gorkhas vis a vis Indian Gorkhas from 70:30 to 60:40. At the time of signing the Tripartite Agreement on recruitment in 1947, 100 per cent of Gorkhas were from Nepal. Lately, due to Indian Gorkhas not meeting recruitment standards, Kumaonis and Garhwalis are included in the 40 per cent reservation for Indian-domiciled Gorkhas. The mother of all fears is of disaffected Gorkhas joining the PLA and Chinese plans to raise PLA regiments of Tibetans and Gorkhas.
RTI activist Vihar Durve, when seeking details of the Agnipath scheme, was informed that the Ministry of Defence file was classified as “secret”. The question being asked is how Agnipath got approved by the three service chiefs as, off the record, serving Lieutenant Generals have told me that the scheme was thrust “from above”.
Assuming Nepal will decide on Agnipath only by December, options on recruitment are, one, filling up the 60 per cent Nepali Gorkha quota with Kumaonis and Garhwalis as was previously done; two, waiting till December for Nepal to decide and implementing a one-time delayed recruitment training cycle; three, suspending Gorkha recruitment altogether, with the aim of terminating the recruitment of Gorkhas as part of implementing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s wish to phase out a colonial legacy. The recruitment of Gorkhas was begun in 1815 by the British, although the first Gorkha Lahure (soldier) was recruited in Lahore in 1809 by Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s Sikh Army. It is understood that the Army will wait till December when Nepal’s new government decides on Agnipath.
For a long time, a silent campaign has been waged for ending recruitment from Nepal while youth in India are unemployed. In 1974, a proposal to phase out the Gorkhas was sent from the Indian embassy in Kathmandu which was rejected by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the recommendation of Army Chief, General Gopal Bewoor who was Colonel of the 11 Gorkha Rifles, a title that the late General Bipin Rawat later inherited. In 2020, then Nepal Foreign Minister, Pradeep Gyawali stunned many by calling Gorkhas a “legacy of the past” and the Tripartite Agreement “redundant”. Gyawali is a Communist leader and his party, along with Maoists, has made recruitment into the Indian Army (not the British army) a political football. Indian ex-servicemen, their progeny and youth in Nepal will be shocked by India’s decision to suspend and stop recruitment.
The political, diplomatic and strategic ramifications of the decision will be negative and profound. On his first visit as prime minister in 2014, Modi said in Nepal’s Parliament, “There was no war India had fought in which Nepali blood has not been sacrificed”. Praising the bravery and courage of Gorkhas, he said: “I salute the brave hearts who had laid their lives for India”. If Modi is not to eat his words, he can keep the Gorkha regiments sourced from Nepal outside the ambit of Agnipath like the Army Medical Corps, to help Nepal make the right choice after its elections or promise to help demobilised Nepali Gorkhas acquire skills and jobs as provisioned in India in deference to “equal treatment” under the Tripartite Agreement. “Save the Gorkhas” should become the national campaign.
The writer is a retired Major General of the Indian Army