Cries and complaints of Indian soldiers, does Modi govt really care?
Number of stories of Indian Army deprived of basic facilities keep revolving around social media
(Web-desk) – India has always bragged about its up to the par policies in terms of serving the people of the nation, economically, politically, socially and for following the best security measures throughout. It has always tried to portray that amid the traditional rivalry between Pakistan and India, their state is well-managed and equipped to deal with all of odd situations coming their way. However, it is a surficial view far apart from the real picture.
Focusing on the condition of Indian army and security measures followed as per policy of the state specifically in relevance to the recent major attack on Pulwama, in which more than 40 soldiers lost their life, we will come to know the fact that Indian government is not even being caring towards its soldiers.
A number of shreds of evidence keep on finding their way to social media via soldiers who have been deprived of basic facilities and compelled to speak up regarding the inhumane attitude they have been facing since long by the government of India.
Let’s take a view of something from the recent happenings and it is not what is being ‘wrongly framed’ sort of story but India Today reported that CRPF soldiers slain in Pulwama attack were underpaid and under-resourced as per the statements of former officers.
According to this news article, these soldiers were among that part of force which were poorly paid and weren’t properly enjoying the resources contrary to that of other Indian Army officials.
While elaborating about the term ‘under-paid and under-resourced’, India Today has stated it as: “A low-ranking army soldier typically receives one-and-a-half times the pay of a CRPF officer of equivalent experience.”
If we have a flash back to the incidents from the past, a Border Security Force (BSF) soldier named Tej Bahadur Yadev uploaded a video on YouTube in which he opened up regarding his miserable condition as a part of Indian Army which is falsely claimed to be one of the best forces by Indians.
Tej Bahadur Yadev revealed that the soldiers of Indian Army were being served with bad quality food and most of the times they had to be on duty empty stomach. He also showed the quality of food which was delivered to them and it was evidently substandard.
According to the YouTube video, Tej Bahadur gave words to the misery of Indian soldiers as:
"We are on duty for 11 hours in extreme weather conditions. But sometimes we have to sleep on empty stomachs. But our anguish has neither been heard by the government nor has the media covered our plight."
Yadev uploaded a total of four videos in this regard between 8th and 9th of January in 2017. In one of the videos, he told that the soldiers were being forced to eat the same food for 10 long days. These videos turned on trouble for Border Security Forces (BSF) and as always, they presented the propaganda by giving fabricated statements against their own soldier.
Yadev’s own family told that he was being pressurized to withdraw the complaining statement and to take down the videos from YouTube as well. Bahadur’s wife also mentioned that her husband’s repute was being tarnished with false statements by BSF and he was actually victimized to that misery for which he talked about in the videos.
Apart from this factual information, the video has been taken off after the rise of this controversy as BSF feared about losing the repute which could defame the sovereignty of the state but none of them considered even for a second that the reality always finds a way out to the surface.
Taking reference of some other stories like that, have a look at the news reported by The Independent on 7 March, 2017 which particularly stated that Indian soldiers are “treated like slaves” as a number of videos related to that were going viral on social media putting a question mark on the preferences of Indian Government towards their Army.
According to this report, an Indian soldier named Sindhav Jogidas posted a video in which he highlighted his concern by claiming that soldiers were being ‘‘treated like slaves’’ and that they are being served with substandard fruit and vegetables and beaten for objecting.
As per Independent’s news, Jogidas alleged that, "The jawans (soldiers) are given the lowest quality of food which is just enough for survival. Some officers keep jawans as slaves but no one can speak against the officers”.
The aforementioned story related to the Tej Bahadur Yadev had the same complaint but the Indian Government disowns its own soldiers specifically when it comes to exposing their reality.
Moreover, News 18 India reported, “Kerala jawan Roy Mathew, who featured in a sting operation criticizing sahayak (Orderly) system, was found dead in his barrack”.
Recently, an Indian writer and journalist Prem Shankar Jha wrote an article with title “In Pulwama, Narendra Modi has found the trigger he needed before 2019 elections.”
He wrote in the article: “Today, with another far more crucial election only weeks away and his party on the skids, it is difficult not to conclude that Modi is trying to repeat history. His verbal assault on Pakistan, his threats of retaliation at a time and place of the army’s choosing and his withdrawal of all security protection from Hurriyat leaders are designed to harden Kashmiri alienation and raise tensions with Pakistan to fever pitch. And as he has been doing ever since he came to power in 2014, he has been using his silences to send the message to the vigilantes of the Sangh parivar – the gau rakshaks, the ‘Vahinis’, the Sanghs and the Dals – that the time has come to bait Muslims into acts of retaliation that will arouse fear and animosity in the Hindu majority and win the BJP the next election.”
All of these examples are clear to indicate how India has been dealing with its soldiers. It signifies that everything which is being broadly bragged is most of the times not in relevance to the reality. The fabrication of threatening statements for traditional rivalry to be projected across the border is always an easy task but to stay sincere to your own people especially the soldiers is far above than everything else to be prioritized which has been unfortunately being reported as failure of Indian Governing bodies.
Written by: Wardah Farooqi
