Nepal tells India to stop recruiting Gurkhas as soldiers if it’s only for 4 years

Name: Protesters detained in India after violent clash over new military recruitment scheme
Uploaded: 2022-08-30T04:44:57.000Z
Duration: 1 min 32 s
Description: Protesters detained in India after violent clash over new military recruitment scheme

Tens of thousands of Nepali Gurkhas serve in the Indian army under an agreement made between London, New Delhi and Kathmandu in 1947

They have historically served for much longer than the 4 years specified under the ‘path of fire’ recruitment policy that India unveiled in June

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

A soldier from the Indian Army’s Gurkha regiment plays the pipes during a passing-out parade ceremony of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police in northern Chandigarh city. Photo: Reuters

Reutersin Kathmandu

Published: 12:44pm, 30 Aug 2022Updated: 12:48pm, 30 Aug 2022

Nepal has asked India to halt its recruitment of Gurkhas into the Indian army under a new scheme for shorter military contracts until it was clear what would happen to them when they retired, an aide to the prime minister has said.

An agreement between London, New Delhi and Kathmandu after India’s independence from colonial rule in 1947 allowed India and Britain to continue to recruit Gurkhas, who have served in the British army since 1815 under a deal struck with the British East India Company.

Tens of thousands of Gurkhas now serve in the Indian army, including in counter-insurgency operations in the Himalayan territory of Kashmir and the northeastern states.

01:32

Protesters detained in India after violent clash over new military recruitment scheme

In June, India unveiled a recruitment policy called Agnipath, or “path of fire”, aimed at enlisting young men into the military on short four-year contracts to lower the average age of its 1.38 million-strong armed forces.

Gurkha soldiers have historically served for much longer terms in both the Indian and British armies.

Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s foreign affairs adviser, Arun Subedi, said on Monday that the recruitment of Gurkhas would be “withheld for the time being” as political parties in Nepal discussed the future of the Gurkhas after their retirement.

“Nepal wants to be clear whether the Agnipath scheme will apply for the recruitment of Nepali nationals … and about their fate after retirement at the end of four years of service,” Subedi said.