Martyr’s family apathetic to use of Kargil heroes’ names

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By : Mohan Verma

A day after BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi remarks on Kargil Hero “Yeh Dil Maange more” referring to Captain Vikram Batra, a martyr’s family stated that most of them are completely apathetic towards political parties.

Mr. N.K. Kalia, father of the 1999 Kargil martyr Capt. Saurabh Kalia said, “We (parent) neither want to be part of politics nor do we want politics on the issues related to the martyrs.”

During the elections, the political parties should not play a game of politics to strike an emotional chord, Mr. Kalia told media persons that patriots and martyrs should be remembered but should not be made part of politics.

Mr. Kalia, who retired as a senior scientist from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, said that he was still relying on the Supreme Court verdict in the matter.

His plea in the court is to refer his son’s torture to the International Court of Justice. The case is scheduled for hearing in the apex court in October.

For over 14 years, Mr. Kalia and his wife Mrs. Vijaya Kalia have been seeking justice for their son and five other soldiers whose mutilated bodies were handed over to the Indian authorities by Pakistan after weeks of gruesome torture.

While addressing series of election rallies in the state, Mr. Modi appealed to voters to ensure his party’s victory in the Lok Sabha polls, but his use of Captain Batra’s oft-quoted phrase “Yeh dil maange more” sparked a controversy with the martyr’s parents and the AAP candidate and Mrs.  Batra, mother of another martyr was also raising objections.

BJP leader had spoken the remarks while he was addressing election rally in Kangra district Palampur, the hometown of Capt. Batra, said: “When we take the name of Major Somnath Sharma (the first recipient of the Param Vir Chakra, awarded posthumously for his bravery in November 1947 Kashmir operations) and Vikram Batra, we feel proud. Our mind says ‘yeh dil maange more.”

Captain Batra was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously for his bravery in the Kargil war. He used “Yeh dil maange more” as a battle slogan, which became widely popular.

Martyr father Mr. G.L. Batra also took offense of the words stating that Mr. Modi should restrain referring Kargil hero during his speech when he was seeking elections of 300 BJP MPs.

Mrs. Kamal Kanta Batra wife of Mr. G.L. Batra is in the fray for the first time on Aam Aadmi Party ticket from the Hamirpur seat against BJP candidate Anurag Thakur, who also took strong expectation of the use of slogan for garnering support of armed personnel and their family members who are in large number in Hamirpur and Kangra district.

The Martyr family alleged that they never used name of their son for sake of votes ,though people now and ask them about the Martyr but during the high pitch of the election campaign uttering of such remarks shows that Mr. Modi was trying to take credit in politics at this point in time by politically using the slogan of a martyr.

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