Allaying apprehensions regarding recruitment of Gurkha soldiers from Nepal, India on Thursday said the process will continue under the newly-introduced Agnipath scheme. The scheme was launched on June 14 for all the three Services.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said here on Thursday, “We have been recruiting Gurkhas soldiers to the Indian Army for a long time. We look forward to continuing to recruit Gurkha soldiers under the Agnipath scheme.”
This reiteration came a day after Nepal requested the Indian Army to postpone the recruitment of Nepalis – which was planned to begin on Thursday – until there is more clarity about the Agnipath tour-of-duty scheme. India has 43 battalions of Gurkha soldiers, including Indian and Nepalese. According to Nepali newspaper My Republica, Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka called Indian ambassador Naveen Srivastava to the ministry on Wednesday and asked him to postpone the plan to recruit Nepali youth – who are drafted into the Indian Army’s Gurkha regiment – under the Agnipath scheme.
The Indian Army had plans to recruit Nepalese in Butwal on Thursday and Dharan on September 1 in Nepal. According to My Republica, Nepal foreign minister Khadka told the Indian ambassador that all “political parties in Nepal should have a unanimous view about the Agnipath scheme” and requested India to stop the recruitment until a consensus is reached.