The recruitment of Gorkhas from Nepal in the Indian Army has been put on hold due to the Agnipath scheme. Recently, Nepal’s Ambassador to India, Shankar Prasad Sharma said that the recruitment process has been put on “pause” but the matter has not been closed. As reported by PTI, he stated, “I don’t think this is a closed subject. India has developed some kind of mechanism in Agnipath and would like to use the same mechanism to recruit from Nepal. Nepal is saying something different. We would like to go for the older system. That is what it is.” The Gorkhas from Nepal have been serving in the Indian Army for a long time now. After the introduction of the Agnipath scheme in June last year, the Nepal government stopped the recruitment of Gorkhas into the Indian Army. They claimed that the scheme’s recruiting process does not conform with the Britain-India-Nepal Tripartite Agreement.

As per the Agnipath Scheme, the Centre stated that youth who will be recruited for the army, navy and air force should be between the age of 17.5 years and 21 years, and they will be inducted for four years; and 25 per cent of them will be inducted for regular service. Nepal wants the Gorkha recruitment to be followed as per the old scheme.

Reportedly, Nishchal Nath Pandey, the director of the Center for South Asian Studies in Kathmandu raised his concerns in an interview with a portal. He said, “The concern is that these young lads will return in a few years without the wherewithal of what to do next in their lives.” He further added, “They can go into alcoholism, drugs and even join some sort of insurgency as they will be trained in combat.”