Let’s Remember our Real Heroes

Captain Vikram Batra, Major Saravanan, Captain Manoj Pandey ,Sqn. Ldr Ajay Ahuja, Captain Kieshing Nongrum, Lt. Saurabh Kalia, Lt. Col. Vishwanathan, Sepoy Lal Singh, Sepoy Rakesh Kumar, Sepoy Rakesh Kumar, Sepoy Raswinder Singh, Sepoy Bir Singh……..

Do these names ring a bell? I am sure not.
These names don’t mean anything to this Facebook, MTV, Orkut Crazy generation.
Ask them to name the reckless, useless winner of a reckless, useless show in MTV Roadies and you will get a prompt answer.

Well these were among the thousands brave hearts who fended off evil Pakistani army goons who had infiltrated our side of LOC in the guise of mujahideen. Ten years after India fought the most televised battle in the history of warfare in the subcontinent, Indians seemed to have moved on.

At 11.30 past night I messaged some friends ‘Happy Vijay Divas’ and ‘Kargil Forgotten’.
Some of these friends were happily and heavily drunk at a reataurant called ‘It’s Greek to Me’ and the text perhaps seemed all too Latin to them.

A Google Search cleared the haze next morning in .17 secs.

Well these very dear friends of mine actually reflects the times we are living in,that tells me that an ungrateful nation had forgotten to salute a famous victory against Pakistan.

A victory in achieving which 562 soldiers had bravely, selflessly, unquestioningly laid down their lives for their country and countrymen, i.e. us, in the cold heights of Kargil.The present generation takes lot of pride in calling themselves as ‘Liberal’ and broad minded. But even for a "liberal" nation with an equally ‘liberal’ generation which has scarcely any militaristic sentiments, it seemed too obvious an event to miss, especially given the rap the nation had received for their disgraceful send off to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw in June.But the Sunday papers provided little proof that old habits die hard. It again reminded me that we as a nation are hardly proud of our history, culture and legacy.

The largest selling newspaper in the world ‘The Times of India’ didn’t think that Vijay Divas demanded any special mention. After all there are other important strategic issues to be covered such as Gay rights etc.

But I must say that Electronic Media proved me wrong. Almost all the prominent news channels covered it extensively. A lot of them stressed upon the history involved, reasons behind the war and aftermath.
Highly appreciated.

Ten years have passed by. But have we learnt our lessons. I regret that the answer is no.
I am not going into why Kargil happened and what could have been done 10years ago
As there is no point in crying over spilt milk. But every war teaches a lesson to the countries involved. The lessons can be categorized in some broad categories :
Political,Social,Militarily,Intelligence and Strategic.

I again regret that we have hardly learnt any lesson.

Political lessons are to be taken by the most worthless citizens in our country, the politicians. I was mad with anger over how they are scrambling to make a political issue out of this too. Congress govt not showing much enthusiasm in celebrating Vijay Divas
as according to some of them the victory came under NDA.

Those who cover the defence beat say the Kargil victory is now viewed as "an NDA/BJP victory" with which the UPA/Congress wants to have no part. "The Congress has its 1971, the BJP has its 1999," says one award-winning reporter.(That the Congress which does not want to remember 1999 could not even remember the hero of the 1971 victory(to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw )properly tells its own story.But if true, how pathetic as a people can we be getting, that we view the triumph of the nation, the sacrifice of our soldiers, not through a wide, collective prism, but through a narrow, constricted aperture of the government of the day?Certainly, critics, skeptics and cynics in the military, media and polity have plenty of questions over how the Kargil victory was achieved: The intelligence and strategic failures, the antiquated techniques in capturing Tiger Hill (the site of most of the casualties), etc.Plus, there is the coffin scam over which the Congress walked out of the House each time then defense minister George Fernandes got up to speak.Much as those questions may be important and need to be answered, how do they take the gloss away from a great victory? And how do they make a meaningful observance meaningless?What kind of signal is such peevishness sending to the jawan in the field, and to potential recruits? What kind of impact does it have on their morale and motivation to be reminded that they are not fighting for the nation at large but for the coalition in power?Is this something over which our parties should try to score silly points?Is this how we show how much we value the armed forces?This is not to suggest that the President and prime minister and defense minister and Congress president must drop everything and break out into a bhangra every July 26 for the benefit of the television cameras. But what do they lose by gracefully acknowledging Kargil's place in our contemporary history?

This was for political class.

There are some lessons to be learned after every war which are very Militarist in nature.
Just a day before I read a report which reports that ‘CAG’ has termed the Gorshkov defense deal as totally useless. Almost all the defense deals happening are shady.
Army is equipped with sub standard weapons. Are we ready for another Kargil?

There are still so many families who have not got their due from governments.The government and the system continues to treat them shabbily. My heart goes out for them.

And now the baiton passes to us. Are we as a citizen even aware of our Army and the great role it plays in safeguarding our interests. Aren’t we so engrossed with our own busy lives and selfish dreams that we don’t even know that there is a Vijay Divas today and it needs to be celebrated.
I wish the Media plays a more proactive role in guiding the citizens towards this. e.g instead of beaming useless Reality TV programmes as ‘Rakhi Ka Swanyvar’ why not
beam a programme on War Heroes.Take some creative liberty to make it sellable. Add some fiction to the real life stories and present it to audience. Well it’s just a small idea.

I am actually quite anguished and emotional today as I write this and I might sound over the top in what I have written but am not apologetic for the same. And as I am writing this I have just watched news on TV which says that Defense Minister and Prime Minister have stayed away from the celebrations. There must be reasons for this.
And I remember a famous Urdu couplet written for freedom fighters.

शहीदो क़ी य़ाद मे लगेंगे हर बरस मेले
वतन पे मिटने वालों का बाकी यही ऩिशान होगा

Times have changed and the poor martyrs won’t know that there won’t be any ‘Mela’
for their remembrance now. The nation has forgotten them.



I will close this post with a request to have a glance at the below mentioned links.
They carry some info of my favorite heroes from Kargil War,
Captain Vikram Batra and Captain Manoj Pandey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikram_Batra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manoj_Pandey
http://captainmanojpandey.tripod.com/


Also try to watch a movie called ‘1971’.One of the rare hindi movies made on POWs
(Prisoner of Wars).

And with a request to observe a silence for a minute in memory of these brave men.
That’s the least we could do.


Jai Hind.

Love,
Saket.