Narendra Modi attacks Congress over lack of war memorial
Press Trust of India
January 28, 2014
Mumbai
[Modi lauded Atal Bihari Vajpayee government for introducing the practice of bringing back the bodies of martyred soldiers to their homes.]
Narendra Modi on Tuesday attacked the Congress - led UPA government over lack of a war memorial as he targeted the massive constituency in the armed forces,minutes after felicitating melody queen Lata Mangeshkar on the 51st anniversary of her memorable song ‘Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon’.
In his politically loaded speech, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate referred to the beheading of an Indian soldier by Pakistan, cyber attacks by China and alleged lack of funding for acquisition of weaponry, to mount a scalding assault on the Centre.
“There is no country in the world where there is not a war memorial. India has fought several wars, thousands of our soldiers have been martyred but there is no memorial to honour their sacrifice.
“Should we not remember them? Should not there be a war memorial? I feel some good things have been left for me to do,” he said, apparently referring to surveys predicting a good BJP showing in the Lok Sabha polls.
As the crowd lustily cheered “Modi lao desh bachao (bring Modi, save the nation), the Gujarat Chief Minister said,”this is not the voice of Mumbai alone, this is the voice of the entire country, from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari, and it is said people’s voice is a message from God.”
In his politically loaded speech, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate referred to the beheading of an Indian soldier by Pakistan, cyber attacks by China and alleged lack of funding for acquisition of weaponry, to mount a scalding assault on the Centre.
“There is no country in the world where there is not a war memorial. India has fought several wars, thousands of our soldiers have been martyred but there is no memorial to honour their sacrifice.
“Should we not remember them? Should not there be a war memorial? I feel some good things have been left for me to do,” he said, apparently referring to surveys predicting a good BJP showing in the Lok Sabha polls.
As the crowd lustily cheered “Modi lao desh bachao (bring Modi, save the nation), the Gujarat Chief Minister said,”this is not the voice of Mumbai alone, this is the voice of the entire country, from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari, and it is said people’s voice is a message from God.”
The BJP’s prime ministerial contender touched upon the highly emotive issue of beheading of a soldier by the Pakistanis.
“A small country beheads our jawan and we fail to do anything. Bring the head of our soldier back to the Indian soil,” he said, adding more Indian soldiers had lost their lives in terrorist attacks than wars.
“A soldier who wants to take the enemy’s bullet on his chest suffers the most when he dies in his own cantonment instead of the battlefield,” he said.
Apparently referring to cyber attacks by China, he said, with the country having a big talent pool of Information communication technology perfessionals why could it not stop such intrusions.
He also flayed the government for massive import of armaments to meet the requirements of defence forces.
“Today we have to make huge imports of armaments to replenish our weaponry. How would the bullets made in alien barracks fire?” he asked.
Calling for formulating effective programmes and policies for indigenous production of weaponry for armed forces, he said there was no reason why the country could not become self-reliant in defence production and even export arms over the next decade.
“Our ancestors exported swords when battles were fought with swords, why can’t we do so now? India cannot wait for it to be attacked to be self-reliant,” he said and underlined the need for introducing defence production research as part of curriculum at science institutes.
He lauded the erstwhile NDA government of Atal Behari Vajpayee for the Pokhran II nuclear bomb test and for introducing the practice of bringing back the bodies of martyred soldiers to their homes.
“There was a time when only the uniforms of soldiers used to reach their homes as sign of their martyrdom. Vajpayee introduced the practice of sending their bodies home. Today, in his death, the fallen soldier inspires patriotism as his community, village and the entire state assembles to pay him homage,” he said.
Earlier, Modi felicitated Lata Mangeshkar, on the 51st anniversary of the moving song ‘Aye mere watan ke logon’. The song she first sang in 1963 after the Sino-India war, had moved Jawaharlal Nehru to tears.
“A small country beheads our jawan and we fail to do anything. Bring the head of our soldier back to the Indian soil,” he said, adding more Indian soldiers had lost their lives in terrorist attacks than wars.
“A soldier who wants to take the enemy’s bullet on his chest suffers the most when he dies in his own cantonment instead of the battlefield,” he said.
Apparently referring to cyber attacks by China, he said, with the country having a big talent pool of Information communication technology perfessionals why could it not stop such intrusions.
He also flayed the government for massive import of armaments to meet the requirements of defence forces.
“Today we have to make huge imports of armaments to replenish our weaponry. How would the bullets made in alien barracks fire?” he asked.
Calling for formulating effective programmes and policies for indigenous production of weaponry for armed forces, he said there was no reason why the country could not become self-reliant in defence production and even export arms over the next decade.
“Our ancestors exported swords when battles were fought with swords, why can’t we do so now? India cannot wait for it to be attacked to be self-reliant,” he said and underlined the need for introducing defence production research as part of curriculum at science institutes.
He lauded the erstwhile NDA government of Atal Behari Vajpayee for the Pokhran II nuclear bomb test and for introducing the practice of bringing back the bodies of martyred soldiers to their homes.
“There was a time when only the uniforms of soldiers used to reach their homes as sign of their martyrdom. Vajpayee introduced the practice of sending their bodies home. Today, in his death, the fallen soldier inspires patriotism as his community, village and the entire state assembles to pay him homage,” he said.
Earlier, Modi felicitated Lata Mangeshkar, on the 51st anniversary of the moving song ‘Aye mere watan ke logon’. The song she first sang in 1963 after the Sino-India war, had moved Jawaharlal Nehru to tears.
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RELATED PLEASE :
The missing monument
Arun Prakash
Apr 23 2013
Apr 23 2013
[Unlike in India, cities across the world have war memorials in central locations]
Not long ago, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit remarked that a national war memorial around India Gate would clutter up a recreational space and hinder people’s enjoyment.
But surely the Delhi administration can create such spaces elsewhere? Pleasure seekers might find more appropriate places than Edwin Lutyens’ grand central avenue, leading from India Gate to the elegant Rashtrapati Bhavan, with the imposing North and South Blocks guarding its flanks.
The civilised world’s capitals are replete with heroic statues of soldiers, with squares and avenues named after generals, admirals and famous battles. In India, we mostly celebrate politicians, along with a few saints, film stars and cricketers. But soldiers seem to be anathema.
It is worth asking whether the Delhi CM would have opposed a memorial to a politician or religious figure on the grounds that it would be a hindrance to people’s enjoyment or that it would spoil the environment. Ever since Independence, the Indian politico-bureaucratic establishment has typically regarded its soldiers, sailors and airmen with a certain disdain.
This is bizarre and incomprehensible, considering that a soldier laid down his life for the country just days after Independence.Lieutenant Colonel Dewan Ranjit Rai earned glory and a posthumous Maha Vir Chakra for fighting Pakistani raiders near Baramulla.
In the 66 years since then, there has scarcely been a day in the life of our embattled nation that a grieving family somewhere has not welcomed a hero, brought home in a tricolour-draped coffin.
The war memorial, if one is ever created, will be a small tribute to the memory of the young men who gave their lives for the nation.
It has been the gallantry, patriotism and selfless sacrifice of these young men that repeatedly saved the nation from disintegration and dishonour, as our strategic naivete led to adventurism by neighbours in 1947, 1962, 1965 and 1999.
The refusal to pay homage to fallen soldiers on the anniversaries of the Bangladesh and Kargil wars, or to the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka, on specious political grounds is unforgivable, especially since Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka celebrate these events in their own ways.
The crowning national ignominy is the fact that the Sri Lankan government has been gracious enough to erect an impressive monument to the IPKF dead, while these brave soldiers remain unsung in their own motherland.
Whether it is the Arlington Memorial in Washington, the Cenotaph in London, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris or the impressive Jatiyo Smriti Soudho in Dhaka, these magnificent monuments embody the pride of nations and the spontaneous desire of citizens to acknowledge the sacrifice of their national heroes, the soldiers, sailors and airmen who have fallen in the country’s wars.
All these are in prime locations in the heart of the city. Far from spoiling the environment, they evoke deeply patriotic sentiments.
In India, it is only the armed forces who pay homage to their own, at the Amar Jawan Jyoti erected below India Gate. There are two bits of irony here, which seem to escape everyone.
First, India Gate is a war memorial erected by the British in memory of soldiers of who lost their lives in World War I and the Third Anglo-Afghan War. Although most of the names engraved on the granite walls are Indian, the monument does not celebrate a national war.
Second, free India’s contribution to this imposing monument is merely a rifle lodged, muzzle-first, in stone, with a helmet perched on its butt. The symbol is recognised across the world as an ad hoc battlefield marker for a soldier’s temporary grave.
For a politico-bureaucratic establishment that has stubbornly refused to acknowledge, by word or deed, the sterling contribution of the soldier to India’s freedom struggle, its post-Partition consolidation and to combating the repeated assaults on its territorial integrity, the construction of a national war memorial at a central location in the Capital would be a belated but welcome gesture.
It would bolster the pride and morale of not just a million and a half Indian men and women bearing arms, but also of the large fraternity of veterans who “gave their today for our tomorrow”.
The writer is a retired chief of naval staff
http://www.hindustantimes.com/comment/bigidea/know-the-unknown-soldier/article1-305457.aspx
Know the unknown soldier
Barkha Dutt
April 18, 2008
Ask us increasingly cynical and notoriously fickle Indians to name something or someone we still have deep and abiding respect for and chances are we will all have the same answer: the Indian Solider.
We may have lazy scorn for our politicians, historic resentment of our bureaucrats and deep-seated envy of our industrialists. But show us those landscaped images of a lone jawan stoically standing guard on an icy, barren, mountaintop, throw in a few strains of AR Rahman’s Vande Mataram and watch our tears turn into a flood of empathy.
We push our military into duties that were never really part of its job description. So,
apart from and in addition to fighting wars and terrorism, we count on our soldiers to
play roles as varied as building bridges when the tsunami hits, keeping the peace during religious riots and even managing the now-epidemic condition of saving children who mysteriously end up at the bottom of borewells.
But if we are a country that really cares so deeply for its military, why is it that a
monster called apathy is in serious danger of devouring the future of the Armed Forces?
This week, while we were all consumed by whether the Olympic torch would make its way safely pastIndia Gate (built by Edwin Lutyens to honour the 84,000 Indian soldiers who died in World War I),the Army Chief was making a trip down the same road.
He was on his way to meet the Urban Development Minister, probably wondering — as many of his predecessors had before him— whether he would have any luck convincing this government
to do, what the British had already done as far back as 1921.
He was carrying a file that has now travelled through multiple ministries for seven years: the plans and architectural designs for a National War Memorial.
For the last two years, different government bodies including the Delhi Urban Arts Commission, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Heritage Conservation Committee
have squabbled like recalcitrant children over whether the designs for the memorial are tenable.
Could anything be a more shocking illustration of the stranglehold of red-tape around what should have been a flagship project for any government?
The designs for the memorial (the proposal is to build the structure around the canopy at India Gate) have been created by Charles Correa, easily one of India’s most venerable architects.
Yet ask officials what has held up the green signal, and they will tell you it is a “lack of consensus” over how high the walls of the memorial should be.
Have you heard of anything more ludicrous?
Admittedly, India Gate is a heritage building, and any new construction within its circumference would have to be aesthetically sensitive.
But that is not even the point.
Surely the question to ask instead is why military chiefs should have to implore different mantrijis to sign on the dotted line for something that should be a matter of intuitive national pride.
We like to think of ourselves as self-confident nation, a global powerhouse that is hard to beat.
And yet, a file to create a national memorial for soldiers who die in conflict has gathered cobwebs and dust for seven long years, and we aren’t even angry enough to ask why.
Perhaps it’s time to admit that cocooned in the embrace of the new economy and the
surging sensex, we may like to be believe that we care about the ordinary Indian soldier, but at best, our solidarity is notional and feeble. We have passionate opinions on India is a ‘soft state’ or whether our governments are ‘tough on terror’.
But beyond the sound and fury of drawing room debate, soldiering is something that happens to other people.
We respond to stories of valour and tragedy with applause and tears but as the moment passes, so does our interest and engagement.
It’s almost like watching a movie — for
those three hours we are transported enough for celluloid emotion to tug at our hearts, but as the popcorn winds down and the lights beam up again — we know that our lives are elsewhere.
Our engagement with the plight of the Indian Soldier is similar — ephemeral and maudlin, but essentially indifferent.
The PLU (People like us) brigade would no longer consider the military as a career option and many of those who did are now lining up and pleading for the freedom to leave.
Ask the Generals and Admirals unofficially, and they will concede that they have to reject resignations, because the shortfall would be too dire to deal with.
In Kashmir, there are already reports of ordinance and artillery units doubling up for infantry duty, because of the numbers crunch.
And for the first time in years, the Army is actually considering a one-time emergency, short-service commissioning of officers to fill the ever widening gap.
That’s how serious and morale weakening the situation is.
Like any other wing of the government, the military knows it can’t compete with the big bucks of the private sector. But, no matter, what your view is on the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, can you think of a single reason why the military has never had
a representative on any pay board? Or why the military shouldn’t just have its own wage board?
The carpers will ask where it will all end. Tomorrow, the police and the paramilitary,
they say, will ask for the same. The liberals will hurl phrases like ‘jingoism’ at you
and say far too much fuss is made about soldiers.
But chances are that they have never
had to stand upright and tearless to salute a coffin draped in a flag. And the rest will
say we are on the side of the soldier and forget all about it with the turn of this page.
In the meantime, the old school soldier will try and tell a generation that doesn’t care
that everything is not about money. He will say that there are such things as romance and respect for which there is no other substitute.
He will then open the newspaper and read about a country that has been debating whether we need a war memorial since the 1960s.
And he will be silent.
Barkha Dutt is Managing Editor, NDTV 24x7
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