On his first visit to nepal as Prime Minister in 2014, Narendra Modi told nepal Parliament that there was no war India had fought in which Nepali blood had not been sacrificed. Praising the contribution and bravery of Gorkha soldiers in Indian Army, Modi said, “I salute the bravehearts who laid their lives for India.”
Seven years later, as the Army prepares to unroll the Agnipath recruitment scheme, there are questions about its social and economic impact on Nepal, from where India has so far recruited approximately 1,400 soldiers into the Gorkha regiment annually (pre-Covid), and how it might affect India's relations with the government and people of Nepal, where its strategic interests are pitted against China.
The first recruitments in Nepal under Agnipath scheme are scheduled to begin late August, and some websites are already showing dates for recruitment rallies, but the Nepal government's confirmation to hold the rallies, which is part of the recruitment procedure, is still awaited. It is also unclear whether the annual recruitment numbers will hold good under Agnipath.
In India, the Army will recruit only 25,000 Agniveers this year.
The Army's intake of Nepal soldiers takes place under a tripartite treaty signed in 1947 between Nepal, India and Britain. Some 32,000-35,000 Nepal soldiers serve in the Indian Army at any given time. The Indian Army ex-servicemen community in Nepal is about 1.32 lakh-strong.
While the numbers to be recruited from Nepal this…
