Citing national security, Defence Ministry declines to share details of staff shortage in armed forces

Defence Ministry refuses to disclose armed forces personnel shortage citing national security, sparking concerns over transparency and accountability.

Citing “national security”, the Defence Ministry has refused to divulge details on the shortage of personnel in the armed forces, which in the past was regularly given out in written responses to questions in Parliament.

“The information sought is a sensitive operational matter concerning national security and it would not be in the national security interest to divulge related details in the public domain,” Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on August 5. This was in response to a question from Member of Parliament Anil Kumar Yadav Mandadi who asked whether the government has taken note of the fact that there is “shortage of staff, including officers, soldiers, medical officers etc., in the armed forces,” if so, the details thereof; and whether the government “has taken any comprehensive measures/steps to fill the vacancies” that are existing.

Till recently, it has been a regular practice to give information to such questions. For instance, in response to a question from MP Javed Ali Khan in the Rajya Sabha on March 13, 2023, then Minister of State in the Defence Ministry Ajay Bhatt said in a written reply that vacancies in the Army as on March 10, 2023 was officers - 8,070 and Junior Commissioned Officers (JCO) and Other Ranks (OR) - 1,27,673. He further stated that from January 1, 2023 to March 10, 2023, the vacancies filled up for officers were 613 and for JCO/ORs it was 19,065.

On June 14, 2022, the government announced the Agnipath scheme for recruitment of soldiers into the armed forces for four years, doing away with the earlier process. The overall intake has been capped at 1.75 lakh till 2026 and Agniveers on completion of four years will get an opportunity to join regular cadre and up to 25% will be selected through another recruitment process.

Similarly, in response to a question from MP Dr. Fauzia Khan on August 8, 2022 Mr. Bhatt informed the Rajya Sabha that on an average, 60,000 vacancies arise in the three armed forces every year due to superannuation, premature retirement, medical reasons, casualties etc. “Currently, there is a shortfall of 7,799 officers and 1,08,685 soldiers in the Army; 1,446 officers and 12,151 sailors in the Navy; and 572 officers and 5,217 airmen in the Indian Air Force.”

Stating that during the years 2020 and 2021, the recruitment process was severely affected due to COVID-19, Mr. Bhatt added, “However, with the improvement in the COVID-19 situation, the recruitment process for the year 2022 has commenced.”

Questioning the government on this, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in a post on social media platform ‘X’ tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that “fake nationalists of the BJP who imposed the Agnipath Scheme on our patriotic youth, and destroyed their future, have now refused to put this key information in the public domain.”