Nepal keen to break common ground with India on Agnipath scheme during Army Chief’s visit

India’s Army Chief, General Manoj Pande is paying a five-day official visit to Nepal from Sunday, September 4, at the invitation of the Nepali Army chief Gen. Prabhuram Sharma. Nepali President Bidya Devi Bhandari is scheduled to confer Pande with the honorary title of Nepali Army on Monday. Conferring the honorary rank of General on each other’s Army Chiefs has remained a customary practice between Nepal and India.

According to officials, the Nepali side will be brainstorming a mutually acceptable solution during Gen. Pande’s visit to make sure   that the recruitment of Gorkha soldiers into the Indian army remains smooth and uninterrupted. Binoj Basnyat, a retired major general of the Nepali Army, suggested that the row over recruitment of Nepali Gorkha soldiers in India’s Agnipath should be resolved through friendly consultations at the earliest.

“As far as concerned about the Agnipath scheme, the Indian Army chief’s visit is a right moment to find a professional common path without further politicizing the recruitment system. It is a need for both of our nations,” Basnyat told India Narrative on Friday in a brief interview.

The Agnipath scheme unveiled by the Indian government in June this year is now the only mode of recruitment of soldiers into the Indian Army. This will be also applicable to the Gorkha soldiers.

“The Agnipath scheme is purely the internal matter of India. But, the short stint and the lack of pension are the two major concerns of Nepal with regards to the Gorkha recruitment,” an official at Nepal’s foreign ministry, told India Narrative on Friday.

Nepali Ambassador to India, Dr. Shanker Sharma, also indicated that the two sides are likely to hold discussion on Gorkha soldiers’ recruitment under the Agnipath scheme during General Pande’s visit.

“I think this issue will figure during General Pande’s engagements in Kathmandu. The Nepali government would like to know more about the Agnipath scheme. When we had a tripartite agreement on the Gorkha recruitment long ago between India, Nepal and the United Kingdom, we didn’t have the provisions,” Sharma told India’s WION television channel.

Nepal last week communicated to the Indian government that it needs some time to hold internal discussion on the recruitment of Gorkha soldiers in the Indian Army under the Agnipath scheme.

As requested by Nepal, India has delayed the recruitment of Gorkha soldiers in the Indian Army. However, India clearly communicated to the Nepali side that it is looking forward to continuing  recruitment of  Gorkha soldiers under the Agnipath scheme.

“We have been recruiting Gorkha soldiers in the Indian Army for a long time. And we look forward to continuing to recruit Gorkha soldiers to the Indian Army under the Agnipath scheme,” India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a press conference in New Delhi last week.

Arun Kumar Subedi, a foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, said that the government is trying to forge a consensus among its key coalition partners over the recruitment of Gorkhas under the Agnipath scheme.

“Prime Minister Deuba is clear that the Gorkha recruitment should not be politicized,” he said, adding that efforts are on to arrive at a national consensus on the matter.

Subedi indicated to some of the Nepali political parties who are whipping up anti-Indian sentiments over the recruitment of Gorkha soldiers in the Indian Army.

The main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Lenninist) has voiced concerns that Nepali Gorkha soldiers will suffer if they are not given pensions after serving in the Indian Army for four years under the Agnipath scheme.

In the words of retired Nepali Army Major General Basnyat, the forthcoming visit of Indian Army General Pande could be productive in further nurturing military ties between the two countries and finding a solution to resolve the Agnipath row.

“The Indian Army chief’s upcoming visit expresses the traditional bond, which is even more important in the new geostrategic environment,” Basnyat said, adding that Nepal-India military-to-military relationship has remained strong and unhindered despite occasional ups and downs in bilateral relations.

There are presently over 30,000 Gorkhas serving in the Indian Army under the Nepal-India-UK tripartite agreement signed in 1947. Likewise, there are over 126,000 Gorkha pensioners in Nepal. The Gorkha connection has been one of the key pillars of Nepal-India military-to-military ties for decades.

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