They put their lives on the stake so that we can lead ours with considerable ease and peace. They remain awake at nights so that we can sleep with an assurance that all is fine. From warding off terror to protecting India’s borders to stepping in to neutralize situations during emergency situations, it is a nation’s army that truly upholds its dignity and protects the true sovereignty of a republic.
For India, it’s army is a beacon of light and hope, absolute subservience, and supreme sacrifice.
The Indian Army has amplified India’s territorial supremacy by scaling past some really scathing enemies in bloodied wars that caused tremors in the heart of the sub-continent. Whether it was the Battle of Longewala in December 1971 where despite being heavily outnumbered by its Pakistani opponents, the Indian army hurled the national tricolors scaling an enormous victory or its holding off China in a feisty battle at an altitude of 16,400 ft. where 120 men of 13 Kumaon’s Charlie Company killed 1700 Chinese troupes, the Indian army has done the nation proud, time and again.
From a traditional standpoint, despite the country spending huge amounts on its defense budget, the general opinion about the army is that it’s not necessarily the most stocked in terms of modernized warfare and weaponry.
But some grand additions have added potent strength to India’s military arsenal in the recent times.
The Pinaka “Multiple Launch Rocket System”, with a range capability of 65 kilometre range rockets, the Prithvi “Air Defence short-range ballistic missile” with a range of over 2000 kilometre, the relatively unknown NAG “Anti-Tank missile” and, T-90 Bheeshma Tanks, fitted with Israeli, Swedish and French sub-systems have strengthened India’s defence preparedness.
That said, a huge hand behind some of Indian Army’s astronomical success in recent years is the immensity of its Defence Research Development Organisation’s innovation.
Through a conflation of outright excellence in weapon development, pathbreaking research, and mind-numbing technology, the DRDO has strengthened the spine of India’s leading torchbearer of chivalry: the Indian Army.
From being the leading light behind the development of medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles- Agni I, II, III, V, to developing Astra, India’s one of a kind ‘beyond visual range’ air-to-air missile and giving India its revered Trishul, a short range, quick reaction, surface to air missile, the DRDO is to the Indian Army what agriculture is to the nation’s economic output.
But beyond the lair of technological prowess and superior arsenal, the Indian Army is a revered institution.
The Indian Army is a bastion where eagles dare.
It is a preamble that lays down the foundation of true, upright, morally conscientious nation whose moral compass never wavers. India can pride itself on having never waged needless wars or using its Army to engage in diatribe or politicking. It is, in fact, a legacy that has walked many a mile to safeguard a culturally-rich, democratically-sound nation state bolstered by principles of secularism and multiculturalism.
It goes without saying that when you are located in a somewhat volatile, fragile region as we are in this part of Asia, next to a nation for whom terror and radical manoeuvres are a way of life, it takes more than just strength and military preparedness to fend off unwanted elements; to cast away the unforeseeable.
The soldier, therefore, regardless of the regiment, location, geography, topography must be accorded his due status in a society that has often sadly found bowing to the cult of a celebrity. That a nation’s armed forces are in no way any lesser than a nectar of undeniable inspiration must be a fact that we as commoners must acknowledge.
And that we must do all we can to anoint true respect for the great sons of our country that unfailingly put their very existence on stake for a country whose youth might not necessarily be knowing the difference between a ‘Subedar’ or a ‘Sepoy’, an ‘infantry’ or an ‘artillery’ should be a way of life, not a special requirement. It is about time that in India- where gum-chewing technocrats or gadget-obsessed entrepreneurs encash dollops of capital in the name of an app but where wives of forgotten Jawans and unsung soldiers are remembered but often only as war-widows- did it’s bit to recognise the valour of its splendid men who think not once before risking their lives in the name of national service.
Jai Hind! Happy Army Day to all!