New Delhi: The recruitment of Gorkhas into the Indian Army will be based on the Agnipath scheme and that call has to be taken by the Nepal government, former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan (retired) said at ThePrint’s Off The Cuff Saturday.
“This tripartite agreement between us [India-UK-Nepal], at that time Nepal [1947] was a monarchy, with the majesty of the British government. They said that, similar conditions for Nepali soldiers to apply for this service,” the former CDS said in conversation with ThePrint’s Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta and Snehesh Alex Philip, Editor (Defence and Diplomacy), at the Quorum, Gurugram.
“That’s what the condition was put by the majesty that time—you have to give them a similar kind of, which is there, what is applicable to the Indian Army and the British [Army]. And that’s what was promised.”
The British East India Company raised the first Gorkha regiment in 1815, which began the two-century tradition of Nepalese soldiers serving in a foreign army. At the time of Independence, New Delhi and London agreed to split the Gorkha regiments, with six units becoming a part of the Indian Army, while four units were transferred to Britain.
“And that’s why they get the same pay, same pension. In fact, if they don’t get anything in Nepal, once they go home, it’s because the Nepal government has deprived them of facilities which we give to our soldiers…because they do not want that. So, there have been some challenges. So, from our side, we have fulfilled a part of our bargain,” Chauhan said.
