Author: Colonel A Sridharan VSM (retd)
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: May 13, 2009
URL: http://news.rediff.com/column/2009/may/13/have-we-forgotten-kargil-already.htm
Kargil makes me sad. I served in Ladakh long
before Kargil happened and know that terrain very well.
A lot has been written about the conflict
which includes the lessons that the Indian Army should learn and what we should
do to avoid another Kargil. Therefore, I am not going to write about matters
military, but matters that are more relevant for our countrymen, especially
our leadership and people.
For any nation, the soldiers are its assets.
You can replace a weapon or buy new weapon systems but it takes years to train
a soldier and make him fight as part of a group that is willing to sacrifice
its life for protecting the country.
It takes years to train a combat pilot or
a sailor. Soldiers, sailors and airmen give 'their today for your tomorrow,'
which I quote from the graves in Kohima, Nagaland, left behind by the British
after World War II, but still taken good care of. They continue to pay their
debt of gratitude to those who laid their lives in that war, fought so fiercely
for a tennis court in Kohima.
The Americans too care for their armed forces
personnel. Their leaders show genuine concern and match their promises with
action. Their veterans are the blessed lot and, what they get for what they
gave is something the veterans in India can only dream of.
America is a land of dreams but they convert
their dreams into reality especially, when it comes to taking care of the
men and women who fought to protect their freedom in all corners of the world.
Love, affection, respect and genuine concern shown for the armed forces personnel
in these countries and in many more countries in the world is what we need
to study and more importantly, emulate.
In our country, soldiers are remembered only
in times of need. When Kargil happened many in our country were unaware of
what happened and many did not care since it did not affect their daily lives.
Yes, there was some war happening in a far off land beyond Srinagar. In any
case, the Valley has seen so much of action, it was assumed that it was one
more of such action, may be slightly larger in scale like the Taj and Oberoi
hotels in Mumbai that were attacked by terrorists last November.
The general reaction of the public is: Some
soldiers died and in any case, soldiers are meant to die for the country.
So what if a body of a soldier who belonged to your city or town is brought
for cremation? It is just another dead body and don't we see so many every
day in our towns and cities?
So what if a soldier's widow and children
are struggling for their livelihood after he laid down his life for the country?
After all, so many widows are languishing in our country and one more does
not matter. The soldier's widow cannot get a ration card. Many others also
do not get one, it hardly matters...
That is the general apathy, even to the family
of the soldiers who laid down their lives. If the soldier is disabled in war,
people think it is nothing that affects them.
The enormity of the situation, the lessons
learnt and the corrective action that were needed after Kargil were discussed
and forgotten. Kargil is a blur in our memory, an event of history to be forgotten
only to be remembered when reminded that we need to celebrate Kargil Diwas!
Sadly, we have even stopped doing that!
It is not selective amnesia but permanent
dementia. And as for the soldiers who were disabled or who lost their lives,
less said the better.
India and Indians need to change their attitude
towards its soldiers, both serving and retired. Indians need to remember the
families of those who made their supreme sacrifice in conflicts like Kargil
or anywhere while performing their duty. We need to pamper our armed forces
personnel not because they wore that uniform for 30 years, suffered deprivation,
found it difficult to make both ends meet while running two establishments
when separated from family because of service conditions.
We need to because a nation which forgets
its soldiers and which lets its bureaucracy dictate terms to the leadership
to manage the armed forces in the manner that suits them or prove their supremacy,
which ignores their genuine demands, is bound to suffer when the time of need
comes again. History strangely repeats itself.
That is what is happening now. Why should
the ex-servicemen (ESM) ever need to demand their legitimate rights? Why is
the country's leadership not doing its duty to meet their legitimate demands
without them asking for it? Do they not have any duty to perform towards the
soldiers and their families as the soldiers have performed in silence, asking
for nothing in return? Are the words honour, loyalty, duty applicable only
to men and women in uniform?
The current ESM agitation which was characterised
by many of them undergoing fasts in many places or returning their medals,
including the ones awarded posthumously to the gallant officers and soldiers
who died fighting in Kargil does not happen any where but in India.
The ESM have been forced to come out in large
numbers onto the streets, shouting slogans to attract attention. The country
as a whole has forgotten them and it is a pity that the ESM need to remind
our countrymen to remember them by adopting agitation as the means to achieve
their end.
Sadly, what they are asking for is One Rank
and One Pension -- a small price for what they have given to our country for
so long.
Why is it that our nation has pushed its veterans
to this state of helplessness that today this apolitical force is taking sides
with political parties to make their demand met? Does our country's leadership
realise that the armed forces which had remained apolitical so far are now
becoming politicised? Surely this is not a healthy trend.
The answers to all the question is known to
all of us. Yet we are mute spectators because it does not affect the civil
population in any manner. If war is an instrument of State policy, the armed
forces are the means to achieve that policy when the time comes. Kargil is
one more event in our history. The soldiers in and out of uniform are not.
They are the ones who make that history happen.
Can Kargil rekindle the hearts of every Indian
to make a pledge to give our soldiers the dignity and respect and give their
legitimate demand without them asking for it? Surely that is not asking for
much, unless we are a thankless nation.
If you fought the Kargil war and want India
and Indians to know and understand the lessons of Kargil, please do send your
article to archanam@rediff.co.in
