When a soldier dies fighting for his motherland he is called martyr. What will he be called if he dies fighting for an alien land? I have no word. But you will ask “Does that happen?” Precisely it has happened and with no other place but our own State, the State of Jammu and Kashmir. People and the State feel proud if its jawans are martyred while fighting to save the country. What will you say when six Dogra jawans of an army contingent were among the 18 martyred in an ambush of the terrorists in Mizoram on May 4 last year.
The gratitude shown to the six martyred brave Dogra soldiers from Jammu region who attained martyrdom is that no ex-gratia relief has been given to the next of kin, no memorial has been raised in their respective villages, no Government job has been given to their nearest kith to help the bereaved family survive and no state honour has been shown to them. All this sounds bizarre but it is a reality. This attitude is the reverse of what other States do for their martyrs.
The reason why J&K State has denied all facilities and support to the families of the martyred soldiers of the State is that we have Article 370 that grants special status to the State and the State law is that any State subject in defence forces getting martyred anywhere outside the State is not eligible to any ex-gratia support or employment to the next of kin. This is what the Indian Constitution, considered the world’s most comprehensive constitution, stipulates. The Dogra soldiers died for the country called India and a State of the Indian Union to which they belonged disowns them and even chaffs at the pride which their martyrdom should have brought to the State. One widow of a martyred soldier rightly put it that if the rules of the State of Jammu and Kashmir do not allow ex-gratia and other facilities to the State soldiers getting killed elsewhere in the country outside the State, why the army posts them outside the State. This is a cogent question and the army has to provide an answer.
We said that a contingent of 18 soldiers laid down their lives in that attack in Mizoram in which six Dogra soldiers were included. The Governments of other states announced ex-gratia and all other facilities to their respective martyrs and our six jawans were discriminated against. The J&K State Government does not pay any ex-gratia and other benefits to the soldiers belonging to other States but laying their lives in Kashmir for protecting Kashmiris. The State Government does not give any ex-gratia to her soldiers dying outside the State. Thus this is a State which is alien not only to the Indian soldiers dying here but also to its own soldiers dying for the country outside the State. Not to speak of paying ex-gratia or providing Government job to the wards of the martyred soldiers, which is an established norm, the promised setting up of a memorial in their names in their villages, too, has never been fulfilled. This callousness speaks of deep-seated discrimination, prejudice and intolerance. It also raises serious questions on the wisdom of those who championed the cause of special status to J&K in the Indian Constitution.
The Indian Constitution and the State Constitution both stipulate that India and the J&K State will be a secular state and no discrimination will be made for any reason. The State Government should hang its head in shame for harbouring the worst type of discrimination in treatment to the soldiers who lay down their lives in service.
Here we would like to bring in another cogent point. One of the widows of the martyrs said that persons who rise in insurgency against the State, run away to PoK, receive training and arms there and come back to unleash blood and brimstone in the valley are shown highest favour by rehabilitating them when they come back from PoK along with their Pakistani wives and children and are resettled, given jobs and civic reception and are held in highest esteem. Compare this with the treatment meted out to the State soldiers who lay down their lives fighting for the country. This is totally illogical and unjustifiable. The questions which the wards of the martyred soldiers ask are these: Is J&K part of Indian Union or is it a foreign country? Is the Government of J&K a nationalist Government or an inimical Government with extra-territorial affiliations?
This issue has surfaced for the first time in public domain and we shall take it up repeatedly and with louder and louder protest. This is discrimination naked and blatant; this is prejudice incarnate and this is bigotry insidious and reprehensible. It is tantamount to dishonouring the noblest of the noble professions of soldiering and we shall not allow it at any cost.
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