The nation on Agnipath: Perils of a government that does not listen

Unless the Centre acts fast to tweak the Agnipath recruitment scheme further or withdraw it, the anger could spill over to other age groups in the rural hinterland

The Central government has been caught unawares by violent agitations against Agnipath, its short-tenure recruitment programme to the armed forces. The navy chief is on record saying that he had not expected "protests like this". Perhaps his counterparts in the Army and the Indian Air Force didn't either. The government itself is surprised. Yet attempts to blame conspiracies organised by the Opposition or a foreign hand mock the public's intelligence. Its geographical spread shows that the agitations are organic and spontaneous.

In less than a week, the Agnipath scheme has been tweaked half-a-dozen times – by extending the age limit