Manoeuvring Through The Boulevard Of Unity.

   If this one institution in this country which is apolitical, incorruptible, which has delivered each time when they have been called out, most of you would agree it is Indian armed forces. Whether it is an external aggression, internal problem or aid to civil authorities they have been always there.
   Troops in combat have tough situations. At times just for you to know,when to attack a post held by a section of 10 men, the ratio of attackers to defenders is 4:1. Which means to attack a section you have to

 launch with a platoon of 40 men. In mountains ratio changes to 10:1. Only then 10 or 15 men will reach the top. That is the retrietion rate. Unlike corporate retrietion, in army it is permanent. Mistakes come home in body bags. So when 100 men are lined up and looking at their right and left, they know out of 100 here who begin assault , only a handful will see the end of that day. Most of them would be dead, many of them worse than dead, handicaps. And yet they write their last letters to their family, parents, unborn child at times. They cockup their rifles, roar the war cry of their pultan and will launch attack. Now ask a fair question to yourselves, "why do soldiers do this?". The answer you may get is like this because of patriotism, for National flag, for uniform, they do it for us etc. That is what you will say and that sounds nice, warm and fussy from inside. Until you put the map of India and ask simple question. If you believe Army is doing it for us, then where are they doing? Where is Kargil? Where is Siachin? Or hundreds of battle fields where our soldiers fought?
   Now something funny happens, the same guy who can point New York, San Francisco, London, Paris on world map struggle to point out where Siachin, where we are fighting a war since three decades. While in past our lack of knowledge about our armed forces would have been shameful and now it is suicidal. Let me tell you why. The 1st sikh battalion is one of the most decorated and the oldest unit of Indian army. This was the unit which was airlifted in October 1947 to stop Pakistanis who were raiding Kashmir. And this was the unit that halted them in Srinagar and thanks to gallant action of this unit that Kashmir is in the map of India. This unit was led by a Muslim Colonel who not only led them in battlefields, exercises he led them even in Gurbani everyday in Gurudwar. Our soldiers donot fight because they hate enemy up infront, he fights because he loves his brother who's standing beside him. They become band of brothers. They donot bother about religion, caste , creed or gothras. In armed forces there is no Mandir, Masjid or Church, they have what is called Sarwadharmasthal. In which all religions are prayed together. A Maulwi will do Pandit's job, a pandit will stand for a Granthi. Gods somehow seem not to care either.
   Soldiers fight on a moral high ground. We as citizens have to realize one thing even as you are reading this right now, from Kanyakumari to kashmir there are soldiers deployed in every kind of situations. Right now as you read there is a young Captian of may be 23 or 24 out there in Siachin commanding his men battling two front simultaneously. He has got a front of very determined enemy. He has got a very horrible weather which claims lives on dialy basis. Let us not open a third front for him. Let us not forget strength of this country which is symbolized by our armed forces because of it's unity in diversity.
                                             -Jai hind