news details |
|
|
| Jammu balancing between the sloganeering the demilitarization and the war memorials | | Sacrifices goes in air as political parties offer Potpuri of vote politics | |
Sanjay Khajuria
Jammu May 12
Paul young once hummed his best number ‘Every Time You Go Away You Take a Piece of Me with You’ and this feeling grips every jammuite whenever they cross the Tawi bridge and suddenly glance over the epitome erected in the memory of war heroes at Bagh-e-Bahu road.
Indeed the ‘winter capital’ of the state Jammu and its around peripheries especially adjacent and closer to the dividing line be it Line of Actual Control (LoC) or the International Border is marked with the war memorials of the soldiers who laid down their lives for the defence of the their boundaries. A single visit to Chamb-Jourian or Suchetgarh and western flanks of the Rajouri and Poonch and valley will make the visitor to kneel down in respect at every war memorial erected in the memories of martyrs.
A new era of the politics started when People’s Democratic Party came riding on the new mantra of the healing touch and Demilitarization/Reduction of troops in state. In the beginning it looked sound to many received a assertive response but many especially brushed aside from this demand of kneeling down to the confronting nation as for them it would be showing their weakness.
Kashmiri Lal an ex BSF personal who had served at R S border also, is in opinion that despite the things have improved the bitterness can’t be removed from the two neighbouring nations. As spitting venom against each other has been a major card earlier and it will be there only cards has been shuffled, he acrimoniously said. Old habits die hard and following the same you can’t trust your neighbour Pakistan as it would not stop poking its nose in internal matter so India, he warned.
While Suresh Bargotra a teacher hailing from a family with army background categorically said, “ if you want peace be prepared for war is the simple code of survival in this global confrontation.’ Why USA attacked Iraq and Afghanistan, he paused and said, “USA president claimed it is for global peace and that is the point you need to be prepared for the war when you are looking for peace.”
Within the demand of Demilitarization stands the continued terror threats but to its sharp contrast there stands war memorials dedicated to the warriors who sacrificed their lives during Indo Pak conflicts and wars reasoning why do they die for, he stressed and state has a strategic location with five decades old Pak-Chinese aggression thus its insane to cry for this ‘moon’ which has a another face on the other side.
Aged Ved Gandotra another veteran soldier recalling his experiences said we can’t forget the bust of the Brig Rajinder Singh Param Veer Chakra awardee who laid down his life in October 1947 and is popularly remembered as the ‘Savior of Kashmir’ as he blew off the Uri bridge from where the tribal raiders were pouring in. At the stone’s throw there stands another memorial in the memory of the civilians who were brutally butchered by the raiders in 1947 at Maheshpura Chowk just opposite the GMC Jammu, can we forget the brutalities depicted on that memorial, he questioned.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
