True patriotism

The message which each and every visitor to Kohima War Memorials is supposed to take home – ‘when you go home tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today’ – is a heart-rending one. This stave of poet John Maxwell Admonds inscribed on an epitaph at Kohima War Memorials depicts the very essence of a soldier’s final sacrifice for his nation and her people for whom he was guarding the nation’s borders. A soldier may win a war or die in the battlefield while securing the future of his nation and her people, and accordingly he is considered a ‘war hero’ or a ‘martyr’. Both ‘war hero’ and ‘martyr’ are value-laden words impregnated with all virtues – sincerity, responsibility, selfless duty, unquestionable patriotism, supreme sacrifices and whatnot a soldier wining a war or dying in the battlefield makes or undertakes – all rolled into one. A soldier clad in camouflage fatigue on duty is always in battle gear – with arms and ammunition to enhance his firepower, besides knives and other sharp weapons to meet every eventuality when the fight is very close and reduced to a scuffle. He also has eyes in the back of his head since he is always on red alert. In wartime, he even does not have the right to recall fond memories of his near and dear ones as such a lapse on his part may cost dearly for the nation. He is a true patriotic warrior who is always ready to fight to the last breath of his life to secure his nation and her people. Barring a heartfelt salute to him (alive or dead) by his seniors or those in authority, no wealth befits his supreme sacrifices for the nation.

Back from his visit to the Siachen Glacier and interaction with the Army officers and soldiers there in June 2019, Defence Minister Rajanath Singh wrote a letter to Mercy Nguiliyangkim, the wife of Havildar Vanlalsanglian who the Union Minister interacted with in the world’s highest battlefield during his high-altitude border visit. Havildar Vanlalsanglian is from Manipur, a State in the Northeast India bordering Myanmar. Showering praise on the soldier in his letter, Rajnath Singh wrote, “Your husband Vanlalsanglian whom I had the proud privilege to meet is doing a yeoman’s service to the nation by guarding our borders in the most inhospitable area. The country is proud of our soldiers. I extend my gratitude to you for contribution of your husband for the service towards the nation.” This is certainly one of the rarest of rare gestures to a soldier’s wife from any defence minister of the world’s biggest democracy. During his visit to Siachen Glacier Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had praised ‘the tenacious resolve and unstinting commitment’ of the soldiers deployed in the harsh and inhospitable Siachen Glacier. The Siachen Glacier, which once used to be a demilitarized zone, came under the strategic control of India in 1984 following ‘Operation Meghdoot’ launched by the Indian armed forces under the leadership of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after Pakistan had allowed a Japanese team to undertake an expedition to a strategic peak in the glacier.

What such a letter from the Defence Minister of the country to the wife of a soldier in aid of? Is not the praise which the Defence Minister showered on the Army officers and soldiers deployed in the Siachen Glacier in June last year enough to embolden the soldiers mentally and physically? Since the letter to the soldier’s wife has come from none other than the Defence Minister, the matter needs to be viewed from the minister’s angle of vision. What might lead him to write such a letter? We will be caught on the wrong foot if we make no mention of the wives and widows of revered soldiers and martyrs while making their appraisal. Leading a life shouldering the responsibilities of their in-law parents and children when their husbands are away fighting enemies along the nation’s borders is no mean sacrifice on the part of the wives and widows of soldiers, for the nation and her people. This letter to Mercy Nguiliyangkim from the Defence Minister, in all likelihood, is the outcome of such a realization. And the strength which the wife or widow of a soldier can draw from such a letter knows no bounds. It is this strength that makes them live life with their chests puffed up with pride and heads held high even when some of them have to lead an untimely widowed life. Hats off to the war heroes, the martyrs and the beeraanganaas! Everyone in the nation is indebted to you for the whole lot of sacrifices you make for the nation. All patriotic stakeholders of the country should bear this in mind while making comments on anything related to defence personnel, be it the recent row over the statement made by Gen Bipin Rawat (now the Chief of Defence Staff of India) or anyone else.