LIEUTENANT DID YOU DIE IN VAIN?

I learnt about your demise from the ticker tape on one of the news channels, last evening. It was a big encounter and a very fierce one at that. A feeling of deep saddness enveloped me as I reflected on your youth which had been sacrificed in Gurez Sector,in the line of duty. What does your death mean?

By now your mortal body would be lying embalmed at the Base Hospital and will be flown out of Srinagar later in the day,on its final journey to the cremation ground in your native town or village.

You were too young to die,far too young! For whom and for what did you die then? This question haunted me last night and I will attempt to answer you.

You were probably from a village or a small town of India. You were perhaps the son of an army officer or JCO, or from an urban or rural civilian background. You could not be from one of the big cities where iron has entered the soul of our youth and where the only driving motivator is quest for money in the surreal environment of the corporate world.

Why did you join the army? Ofcourse to get a job. But than that is over simpliying the question. You were possibly motivated by the traditions in your family and clan,you were probably enthused by the sight of your elder brothers,uncles or other men from your community in uniform,you were perhaps enchanted by the cantonement life where you may have spent your growing years.

As your body comes home, you will not get the adulations from the Government which a soldier's body gets in the USA. Your name will not be read out in any obituary reference in Parliament,as is done in the UK for all soldiers who fall in combat in the line of duty.Your name will not be etched on any national memorial because we do not have one! Symbolically you will become the unknown soldier for the Nation, for whom the flame burns at India Gate, but your name will not be etched there.The names engraved on that monument are of the soldiers who died fighting for the British Indian Army and not those who have made the supreme sacrifice for independent India! Can it get more ironic?

But do not despair Lieutenant. Your comrades will do you proud! The seniormost officer will lead the homage that your brother officers will pay you before you leave the Valley of Kashmir one last time. Your unit representatives will escort your body home. You will be carried to the funeral pier draped in the flag for which you died fighting.The darkened and tearful eyes of your grief-stricken mother and the stoic figure of your father, benumbed by the enormity of this tragedy, will move even the most cynical.

I do not know Lieutenant at what stage of the encounter you fell, mortally wounded. But the fact that you were there on the lonely vigil across the Line of Control in Gurez, is enough to vouch for your valour. Your unit and formation commanders will see to it that you get the gallantry award which you so richly deserve. In due time your father or your mother will be presented the medal and parchment of your gallantry,which will be framed and find the pride of place in your home.Time will dull the bitterness of this tragic parting, which right now is the only feeling that engulfs your parents and siblings, in its enormity.

Lieutenant you were lucky. You did not live long enough to get married and leave behind a grieving widow. You did not live long enough to have children. For when they would have come of age you would have seen in them a cynicism towards the army for which you died. You will not see a young son who thinks his father is a hero and wants to follow his footsteps in joining the army only to be harshly disuaded by his mother (or even father!) from following a profession which ranks so low for the youth of our country. You were lucky not to serve long enough to see the army getting belittled . You did not live long enough to see the utter indifference and even disdain for the army. Like you a large number of valiant soldiers laid down their lives on the rocky heights of Kargil,fighting against self-imposed odds. Today it is not even felt fit to publicly commemorate the anniversary of that stupendous military victory,won by blood and gore,in a befitting manner.

But do not despair Lieutenant. Your name will be etched for posterity in the annals of your Unit and your Regiment. A silver trophy with your name inscribed on it,will grace the centre table of the unit mess.You will also find your name in the unit Quarter Guard,where annual homage will also be paid to you.The war memorials at the Formation HQ where you served and at your Regimental Centre will proudly display your name for eternity.If you joined the Army through the NDA, your name will be written in the Hut of Remembrance through which each cadet will pass,paying homage before his Passing Out Parade.

There will be an obituary reference to you from your comrades in the papers, which will be flipped over by most but which will be read in detail by people who have a connect with those who wear or wore the uniform.

As your parents head into the evening of their life,memories of your valour will be their most precious possession. When ever your mother will think of you her eyes will mist over but there will be more stars in them than you ever wore on your shoulders.Your father may speak quietly about you but no one will miss the swell of pride in his chest. For your siblings you will always remain the real hero,and for that matter even for your community and village. A school or a road may well be named after you and you will become a part of the local folk-lore.

You died Lieutenant, because when the test came, you decided that you could not let down your family,your clan and your comrades, who always expected you,without ever saying so, to do your duty.You, Lieutanant, have done more than your duty and made your memory their hallowed possesion.

LIEUTENANT YOU DID NOT DIE IN VAIN!

- Sarvar Bali

Kashmir and Azadi : A Media Hype

*Kashmir’s Azadi talk — a lesson in how to destroy the idea of India.* We heard this in 2008. And we are hearing this again now. India should give up Kashmir because Kashmiris don’t want to stay with India. They want Azadi. But how are you so sure? Look at your TV screens and you’ll have the answer. But if I were to look at TV screens and seek answers, then I’d be forced to believe that Rahul Mahajan and Rakhi Sawant are the Father of the Nation and the Mother of the Nation. I know we don’t have a Mother of the Nation yet, so we will perhaps settle for Rakhi Sawant as Mother Teresa then. Of course, not to forget the impression that Arnab Goswami is India’s foremost intellectual, far ahead of Pratap Bhanu Mehta. But we have digressed. So some emotional anchors on our TV screens, supported by selective footage, conclusively prove that Kashmiris don’t want to stay in India. This obviously means that they should thus be allowed to go. Let us leave the bit about where they should go to and return to the topic of Kashmir. Firstly, the state is not Kashmir, but Jammu & Kashmir and unlike Jharkhand or Uttaranchal, it wasn’t created in the twenty-first century. Its geographical boundaries have been in existence for over 150 years before Pakistani army and its proxies, the tribal raiders destroyed the geographical sanctity of the state in 1948. Of course, Pakistan ceded a portion of the state to China in 1963 and seems to be in the process of following up by handing over Gilgit-Baltistan, or some portions of it, to its all-weather friend China now. Now, I can’t resist but have a dig at an all-weather friend ditching Pakistan at the first spell of bad weather. Clearly a fair-weather friend China is. But then the colour of the cat doesn’t matter as long as it catches the mice or as long as it can pin down the elephant so that the dragon can strut on the world stage. Damn, we again digress. So the state is Jammu & Kashmir, not Kashmir. We have had very successful elections in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in 2008 and 2009, which overwhelmingly reflects the confidence of the residents of that state in the Indian Republic. But what about the Kashmiris? They want their way out. Great. What is the smallest unit that can decide that it wants its way out of the Indian Republic — a nation, a state, a district, a village, a family or an individual. Can the city of Sopore or the Hyderpora colony in Srinagar decide that it doesn’t want to be part of India and declare independence? If there is a case for Sopore or Hyderpora, then why not a case for South Mumbai. It even has access to a sea port and has the financial muscle to survive as an independent nation. Forget it though, these guys from South Mumbai don’t even come out to vote in the elections. So the question of parents in South Mumbai hiding behind their 8 and 9 year olds to throw stones at cops doesn’t even arise. Forget the idea. But we have digressed again. This is the contradiction that no one wishes to answer. Sopore may vote overwhelmingly for Azadi, Kashmir division may be equally divided on it while Jammu and Kashmir may be overwhelmingly against it. How do you decide the issue then? Taking it logically — even if it sounds counter-intuitive — the smallest unit that can then decide whether any part of the country can stay in the country or not is the country itself. Now that doesn’t sound fair to a few people, like the stone-pelting protestors of Kashmir. But it is fair to a larger group of people that form the unitary political entity called India — the Indians. That is what nations are about. It is a part of the social and political contract that the nation has with its people. Only Indians can thus decide in a plebiscite whether J&K or for that matter, Kerala should stay in the country or not. Look at it in another way. Sopore and Srinagar want Azadi with the Shariah law imposed there. Logically, we are a democracy and we should accept it because a majority wants it. Now let us go to Pilibhit and it says, hypothetically, that let us cut the hands of all Muslims residing in Pilibhit. After all, Mr Varun Gandhi won from that constituency by over 4.5 lac votes by reportedly invoking some of those images. Will we accept that? No, of course, we won’t. And we shouldn’t. Why? Because India is not merely a democracy, but a democratic republic. Even if a majority decides something (and even if the parliament approves it), it can be shot down by the court if it is unconstitutional. Indian democracy is not simple majoritianism. It is also a republic which is circumscribed by certain inviolable principles enshrined in the Indian constitution. What does the Constitution of India say about secularism? And what does the separatist Kashmiri leadership say about role of religion in Kashmir? Because most of our star-journalists develop partial amnesia when talking about the fundamentalist-religious angle of the separatist movement in Kashmir, it is necessary to remind them that the separatist movement is underpinned by communal principles which violate the fundamentals of Indian nationhood. If India is willing to make compromises with one shade of communalists, it would then be willing to do so with others of the same shade — the Bajrang Dal and the Ram Sene types, leave alone the likes of Varun Gandhi and Narendra Modi who have won popular elections with dubious messages. Where does it leave the idea of India then? If you care for the idea of India, ponder for a moment before peddling this notion about Kashmir and Azadi. India exists because of the idea of India. Let us not destroy it, inadvertently or otherwise.