Young men vandalised trains, damaged buses and torched a police outpost on Friday as they protested over the Centre’s Agnipath scheme at several places in Uttar Pradesh. Over 300 trains were affected and more than 200 cancelled so far due to protests. 94 mail and express trains and 140 passenger trains have been cancelled due to the protests, while 65 mail and express and 30 passenger trains were partially cancelled.
The Railways has also diverted 11 mail and express trains. The total number of trains affected so far stands at 340. Coaches of seven trains have so far been set ablaze by protestors, officials said, adding coaches of three running trains in the ECR and one empty rake in Kulharia, in the same zone, were damaged by protestors.
These are the acts by people who aspire to join the Indian Army. Indian Army stands for discipline, ethics and loyalty. There is no scope for people who indulge in vandalism and destruction of public property. One fails to understand the need for rioting. No one has forced anybody to join the Indian Army through the Agnipath scheme. One can understand the fear caused by the contentious provisions in the recruitment policy but that does not warrant such violent reactions.
Indian tri-services are a volunteer force. Anybody joining the armed forces in India does so by their own wish. Unlike many other countries, joining military service is not compulsory for our youth. If one is so unhappy with the recruitment provisions then don’t opt for it. The Army is already grappling with shortage of men. Moreover there haven’t been any recruitments since last year.
If more youths choose against joining the Army then the shortfall will become more acute and the government will have to do a rethink on its scheme because a country having two hostile nuclear powers, and treacherous terrains to defend that include huge coastline, mountains, desert and jungles, will need more jawans and officers to guard the borders. It can’t blindly go ahead with such an unrealistic policy. One does not need to resort to violence for that.
There are non-violent methods of protest like dharna, hunger strike etc. One can file petition in the High Court or Supreme Court challenging the decision. But opting for violence is certainly not going to serve any purpose. Every time there is a violent protest, the brunt is borne by public property like trains and buses, which are invariably torched or roads and railway tracks blocked, stones are pelted. These kinds of actions finally cause inconvenience to the common man.
These rioters are forgetting that they are torching their own property. One luxury bus run by the government costs Rs 50 lakh and non-air conditioned bus costs Rs 30 lakh. One AC railway wagon costs Rs 70 lakh and a Sleeper coach costs Rs 50 lakh approximately. The money to purchase and run these modes of transport ultimately comes from the money paid by the common as taxes. This means, every time a bus or a train is burnt or damaged, it is the tax payer who is losing out. A country where there is a huge population which depends on public transport for commuting and there is already a shortage of buses and trains to carry the huge population of this country, it can’t afford to damage what is in limited supply.
Ultimately, these violent acts lead to losses for the common people, be it in way of damage to their own property or lives. No one has anything to gain from this kind of mindless violence. The Indian armed forces certainly doesn’t need such mindless people in its rank to save the fellow countrymen, for which a soldier has to make so much sacrifices, including with his own life.
