Independence Day: Don’t Let Sacrifices Go Waste

I was born in Independent India. This does not mean I am not aware of the sacrifices of the people many of whom laid their lives to see India a free nation. I can feel the pains of the nation during the freedom movement. I can visualize the scene when Shahdeed Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Raj Guru were hanged by the British rulers. I can imagine the cries of the people who were massacred by the British Government at JaliaNwala Bagh massacre. The Dandi March of Mahatma Gandhi or the courage of Subhash Chandra Bose.

This is our 66^th Independence Day.

As a young man I remember the 1971 war with Pakistan. I was a young journalist then. I had the rare privilege and opportunity to cover the war from forward areas as a war correspondent of The Searchlight and Pradeep published from Patna. That time, our leadership demonstrated the courage and guts to fight it out with Pakistan and crush the atrocities and killings of Bangla speaking population of East Pakistan. Our Army defeated the Pakistani forces and captured almost one lakh Pakistani soldiers and dozens of officers including Lt. Gen Niazi who was chief commander in East Pakistan and made them prisoners of war. Bangladesh was born. The POWs were brought to Ranchi and kept there for some time before being repatriated to Pakistan under ceasefire agreement. Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Arora was the commander in chief of the Indian Army in the war zone on the Eastern Sector with Pakistan and General Mankeshaw was the chief of the army staff.

My second most exciting and yet traumatic experience was the Emergency of 1975. I was with Jaya Prakash Narayan and involved in the JP movement.

I wonder how Indira Gandhi who had emerged as a strong Prime Minister and leader of the country in taking on Pakistan in 1971 despite international pressures particularly from Washington, subsquently turned out to be an oppressor of her own countrymen. She fell into the trap of her misguided advisors including her younger son Sanjay Gandhi when she declared internal emergency in the country on 26 June 1975. She had to pay the price when she and her party the Congress were defeated in the elections of 1977.

I feel sad when I see our Prime Minister today, the Defence Minister and other Congress Ministers and leaders including the Congress President Sonia Gandhi. The rulers have least regard for our soldiers. Look at the way our Army is being targeted by the two hostile neighbours- Pakistan and China. Loot at the scams in defence forces, be it the latest pay off in the helicopter deal or purchase of ‘boots, guns and jackets’ for our Army. Substandard materials are being purchased and given to our Army and other two defence forces, the Air Force and the Navy. Even food articles including cereals are substandard.

The government of the day is too much pre-occupied with fighting the fire of corruption which refuses to douse. The government’s second priority is to strike shady deals with some regional political parties for their support in and outside Parliament. Their third priority is to raise the bogey of secularism in the country that only aggravate communal divide.

I recall a speech of Lal Bahadur Shastri. He was addressing a public meeting in Allahabad. Our Prime Minister Shastri narrated an incident. He had gone to see an injured soldier to a hospital. He said that the solider was almost wrapped in cotton bandage. You can imagine his pain and plight. When the accompanying officer whispered into the ears of the injured soldier that Prime Minister Shastri had come to see him, the soldier said that he was feeling sorry that he was not in a position to salute the Prime Minister. After narrating the story, Shastri broke down at the dais in view of huge crowed at the meeting ground.   Shastri knew the contribution of our Armed Forces and the farmers to the nation building and hence he gave the slogan of ‘ Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’.

Will the rulers in command of the country take the trouble of going through the tenure of Lal Bahadur Shastri  as a Minister in Nehru Government and later as Prime Minister of India to learn a lesson or two from his life, perhaps not?

~R. K. Sinha