Ex-Gorkha Soldiers Protest in Pokhara, Demand Resumption of Indian Army Recruitment Under Agnipath
Former Gorkha soldiers of the Indian Army, their family members and Nepali youths took out a protest march in Pokhara on Wednesday, pressing the Nepal government to immediately permit recruitment of Nepali citizens into the Indian Army under India’s Agnipath scheme. The demonstration highlighted growing frustration among veteran communities and aspirants over a recruitment freeze that they say is hurting livelihoods and weakening a long-standing military tradition.
Former Gorkha soldiers of the Indian Army, their family members and Nepali youths took out a protest march in Pokhara on Wednesday, pressing the Nepal government to immediately permit recruitment of Nepali citizens into the Indian Army under India’s Agnipath scheme. The demonstration highlighted growing frustration among veteran communities and aspirants over a recruitment freeze that they say is hurting livelihoods and weakening a long-standing military tradition.
The protest in the western Nepalese city was organised by the Indian Ex-Servicemen Gorkha Brigade Nepal’s Pokhara chapter. Participants marched from Pokhara Stadium to the District Administration Office in Kaski district, carrying placards before submitting a two-point memorandum to the Chief District Officer for onward transmission to the federal government in Kathmandu.
At the centre of the memorandum was a demand for the immediate resumption of Gorkha recruitment into the Indian Army under the Agnipath model. Protesters also called for the renewal of ex-servicemen organisations whose names include the words “soldier” or “ex-servicemen”, alleging that Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs has been preventing such renewals under a circular issued on 17 April 2024. According to the demonstrators, that circular restricted the use of the term “soldier” to the Nepal Army alone.
Colonel (Retd) Krishna Bahadur Khatri, chairman of the brigade, said the suspension of recruitment had interrupted a practice that began after the Treaty of Sugauli and had continued for 207 years. He argued that Nepal’s refusal to allow recruitment under Agnipath had blocked a key employment route for young Nepalis and threatened a legacy associated with Gorkha service in the Indian Army.
“However, after India started the Agnipath scheme, the Nepal government, citing various reasons, has deprived Nepali youths from being recruited into the Indian Army. This has resulted in the loss of employment and the history of bravery earned by our ancestors is also on the verge of being erased,” Khatri was quoted as saying.
Why protesters want recruitment restored
Those participating in the Pokhara demonstration argued that service under Agnipath remains a far more attractive option than low-paid migration to Gulf countries. In their memorandum, they said an Agniveer could earn roughly 4.5 to 5 million Nepali rupees over four years, along with other facilities. They contrasted that with the harsh conditions faced by many labour migrants, describing Agnipath as “hundreds of times better than going to the Gulf with 50 degrees Celsius temperature and working for a minimum wage.”
Their position was that Nepali youths should not be pushed towards difficult overseas labour markets when a traditional and, in their view, honourable avenue of service has remained shut.
How the recruitment freeze developed
Recruitment of Nepali Gorkhas into the Indian Army has effectively remained suspended since around 2019–2020. The initial disruption came during the COVID-19 pandemic. The issue then became more complicated after India unveiled the Agnipath recruitment system on 14 June 2022.
Under Agnipath, soldiers recruited as Agniveers serve for a fixed term of four years. Up to 25 per cent may subsequently be retained for longer service, while the remainder leave with a one-time severance package but without pension benefits. It is this short-term contractual structure that Kathmandu has said is not consistent with the 1947 Tripartite Agreement involving India, Nepal and the United Kingdom, under which Nepali Gorkhas were to receive broadly similar terms of service as their counterparts.
India, for its part, has maintained that Agnipath is a standard national recruitment policy that applies uniformly to all entrants into the Indian armed forces. New Delhi’s position has been that whether Nepali citizens are allowed to join under that framework is for the Nepal government to decide.
The freeze has had practical consequences for the Indian Army as well as for recruitment-linked communities in Nepal. Historically, about 32,000 to 40,000 Gorkha soldiers from Nepal have served at any given time in the Indian Army’s seven Gorkha Rifles regiments. With recruitment stalled, the Army has increasingly been filling gaps through Indian-domiciled Gorkhas and other hill communities.
Pokhara has long been one of the principal centres of Indian Army Gorkha veterans and their families, which helps explain why the issue has generated sustained local mobilisation there.
Protest comes ahead of Army chief’s Nepal visit
The timing of Wednesday’s demonstration is notable. It comes only days before Indian Army Chief General Dhiraj Seth is due to begin a five-day visit to Nepal on 16 August 2026. During that visit, President Ram Chandra Paudel is expected to confer on him the honorary rank of General of the Nepali Army, part of a reciprocal tradition between the two militaries that dates back to 1950.
General Seth is also expected to hold talks with Nepal Army Chief General Ashok Raj Sigdel and may call on Prime Minister Balendra Shah. Against that backdrop, the Pokhara protest has drawn attention to the unfinished and politically sensitive question of Gorkha recruitment, which sits at the intersection of bilateral defence ties and domestic employment concerns in Nepal.
Economic and symbolic stakes
The agitation in Pokhara reflects a broader campaign by Gorkha veteran groups and prospective recruits who see the continuing halt in recruitment as both an economic setback and an erosion of a centuries-old martial connection with India. For many families in Nepal, especially in communities with a long tradition of Gorkha service, recruitment into the Indian Army has represented not only employment but also social prestige and continuity with earlier generations.
The protest also points to the limited domestic employment options available to many young Nepalis. Organisers say that interest in joining the Indian Army remains strong even under the revised Agnipath conditions, despite the four-year tenure and the uncertainty over long-term retention for most recruits.
Organisers have said they will continue protest programmes if their demands are not met. Their message to Kathmandu is that the issue can no longer be treated only as a procedural or diplomatic matter: for communities tied to the Gorkha regiments, it has become a pressing livelihood concern as well as a question of preserving a military tradition that has endured for more than two centuries.
