India does not deserve its heros

I have just finished speaking to Col VK Thapar, father of Kargil hero, late Capt Vijyant Thapar, Vir Chakra. It is the 10th anniversary of Kargil. Today, Indian Express has published the letter Vijyant wrote just before leaving for his last mission, in which he said to his mom and dad, ‘ By the time you get this letter, I’ll be dead and watching you from the sky, surrounded by apsaras’. Can you believe it? It is true.

Being an infantry officer of 27 years standing, I have seen many brave soldiers but never one as this. Here is a young man, all of 22 years, going to meet certain death in such a lighthearted manner. All for a purpose called India. You can see the full letter on his site http://www.captainvijyantthapar.com/ . Even enlightened yogis do not achieve such detachment.

Just after I put the phone down on Col Thapar, I switched on the TV and was taken to the NDTV reporter graphically covering details of how a bootlegger in Ahmedabad had been openly selling hooch from a Hanuman Mandir for years, in a state with prohibition. The reporter then showed shots of how branded liquor too was available in all of Gujarat, on a home delivery basis.

The reality of what Indian state has become is not new to me. Day in and day out, I see a failed state and a capricious, money-minded society. I am pretty used to all this and have lost all sensitivity and pain on this account. But somehow the way both these incidents were played to my conscience this morning, back to back, shook me. It actually made me feel sick. Here is a young man with such dedication to the state, and here also is the state and society for which he so willingly dies. And all that at age 22, when most people are still frolicking in their college canteens.

It is not about the one bootlegger. Today, poisonous hooch is in news, yesterday adulterated ghee and milk across 3 states was news. It is what our entire Indian entity – bureaucrats, politicians, and police – has become. The society and the people have not fared any better. The cruelty that Indians are capable of inflicting on other fellow Indians is limitless. And if you happen to be an Indian with some official status, even sky is not the limit.

If our freedom fighters occasionally ask, ‘Is this what we fought for?’, the soldier also asks – ‘Is this what I died for?’ He secures the external boundaries for the people and national institutions to feel unhampered in building the nation, not in ravishing it. When all this happens rampantly, and that too by wilful design, he questions. If he presently does not, he should. There is no need to be defensive about it. The price that he pays qualifies him eminently to inspect the goods purchased.

I sincerely feel we have no right to ask people like Vijyant to die for us. We don’t deserve their sacrifice.