Wrath of the Jawan and the Kisan

Agniveer, farmers and employment take centre stage in Haryana

- Sharmita Kar

THESE days, Satyapal 'Fauji'-a retired Army officer spends most of his days at his buffalo shelter Tofficer-spends in Lajwana village near Julana in Haryana's Jind district. He often flips through the family album. The pictures of his son, Sachin, bring a smile to his face.

Sachin, 23, used to wake up every day at dawn to run a circuit around a stadium in Haryana's Rohtak to train his body for the armed forces. It was a shared dream between the father and the son that Sachin joined the Army.

A scheme launched by the central government shattered that dream. In June 2022, when the Centre announced a four-year short-term recruitment programme called the Agnipath Yojana, Sachin-the sole breadwinner after his father retired-ended his life.

Recalling his last interaction with his son, Satyapal says: "On the evening of June 15, Sachin called me worried and asked, 'Papa, what do I do now, what is the point of trying for this anymore?' I told him not to worry and that he would find an alternative job." Sachin's voice was shaking so Satyapal decided to visit him the next day. "But he never let the next morning arrive," he says while looking at a photograph of Sachin from his school days in the family album.

As Haryana goes to poll on October 5, the Agnipath Yojana-which has replaced the traditional entrance process for permanent recruitment in the armed forces-has emerged as one of the biggest poll issues.

The anguish of the state's youth against the Centre's Agnipath scheme has been biting at the BJP government. Every year, a sizeable population joining the armed forces comes from Haryana. However, this changed two years ago when the recruitment process was altered.