The 14th Feb is a day which is always awaited by all for being a Valentine’s Day. But unfortunately it is also a day which is remembered for the PULWAMA ATTACK in 2019, when a convoy of security personnel on the Jammu Srinagar National Highway was attacked by an explosives laden vehicle driven by a suicide bomber, leaving 40 of our CRPF brave hearts dead.
Incidentally, the Pulwama attack was only two and half years after the URI ATTACK, another gruesome and horrific assault, when four terrorists attacked a military base during the wee hours on the morning of September 2016, killing 19 soldiers and injuring another 19-30 army men.
Unfortunately and incidentally again, only two and a half years after the Pulwama attack, when we are celebrating our 75th year of independence, we lost our first Chief of Defense Staff, GENERAL BIPIN RAWAT, on the 8th December 2021 to an air crash. Although not an act of aggression, yet for a few days again it did make us feel vulnerable and insecure, as if our roof has blown off, and again left us with a deep sense of anger, bewilderment and remorse, all at the same time.
In a country like India which is infested with a number of factions and groups, with over 40 organizations already being banned and many more still operating under cover, no event of national, regional, religious, political or cultural importance can pass off smoothly without any planned disruption.
Be it the JIHADIS in the north, the ULFA in the East, the NAXALITES and other separatists in the centre, the LTTE in the South, or the ISI and the KHALISTANIS on the West, the country continuously and simultaneously remains under target both internally and externally.
Yet, the successful and peaceful conduct of every event and occassion year after year, and month after month only makes us realize how relentlessly our RAW agents, in combination with the ARMED FORCES, work day and night behind the scenes, neutralizing every possible disturbance a-priori.
No matter how much we take the presence of our Armed Forces as given, or how much we may remain obscure of their operations, a look at the conduct of Armies of our own neighboring countries does make us appreciate the greatness of our own Forces.
AFGHANISTAN today lies in the hands of the terrorist organization, the Taliban, primarily owing to the BETRAYAL by its own ARMY, which fled the battlefield in totality in the face of advancement by the Taliban.
Even the billions of dollars spent by the US on training the Afghan Army and equipping it with some of the most sophisticated weapons and equipment, could not infuse it with enough courage, confidence and patriotism. The day when India welcomed its 75th independence day on the 15th August 2021, Afghanistan fell into the hands of Taliban, largely due to the COWARDICE of its OWN ARMY.
CHINA, another immediate neighbor of India, even today avoids the mention of the TIANANMEN SQUARE massacre of June 1989, when its ARMY ran its tanks over pro democracy protesters, and shot down many others, leaving several hundred civilians dead and several thousand others wounded.
The civilians of yet another neighbor MYANMAR (BURMA) are today forced to fight a battle against its own ARMY, as the latter toppled its popular pro democracy government and arrested the Noble Peace Prize winner, Aung San Syuu Kyi, on 1st February 2021. In the Army crackdown against the protestors, already over a thousand civilians have lost their lives.
The MILITARY of PAKISTAN as we all know is so self obsessed that, it over shadows not only the annual budgetary allocations, but also every other internal matter of the country, right from politics to administration, religion, economy, culture etc.
The NAZI ARMY of GERMANY, is well known to have exterminated 6-12 million people of different ethnic groups of Germany itself in gas chambers during the holocaust.
World history is replete with incidents of either mass aggression by the military itself against its own country men, leaving hundreds to thousands dead or jailed, or of mass betrayal and fleeing by the military at the last moment, leaving the civilians exposed to an external aggression.
Therefore, the GREATNESS and PIOUSNESS of the Indian Armed Forces lies not just in its bravado, courage, and enthusiasm, and for its ever presence on the borders but ACTUALLY :
1) for infusing in us a feeling of trust and confidence that they are STANDING FOR US AND STANDING WITH US every moment.
Come any earthquake or tsunami, floods or cloud bursts, avalanche or wild fire, the army without fail and automatically becomes our first rescue cum support system;
2) For never misusing and mis-wielding its powers;
3) For confining itself to the matter that matters it the most – NATIONAL SECURITY, leaving the civilians free to lead their lives as they desire.
In the entire history of India spanning over several thousand years, there is NO incident (barring several hundred years of the Mughal and Colonial rule), wherein the Army either :
turned against its own country men;
or fled the battlefield;
or interfered into any internal matter of the country,
The greatness of an Army lies not just in carrying arms and winning battles but also in understanding the concerns of the civilians.
Therefore any attack on the Army is an attack on our own livelihood and peace. It makes us realize how precious, invaluable, hard earned and hard maintained our liberty is.
In this light, let us today remember the martyrs of the Pulwama attack
for the security and cover;
for the trust and confidence;
for the humane support
