Defending the country’s borders is a 24×7 job in which there’s just no scope for any laxity and as such the bulk of India’s armed and paramilitary forces are away from their homes during festivals because of being posted in remote and, at times, hostile terrain along the nation’s borders. Missing being with family members on festivals is but natural, but those in the forces get accustomed to it and the unit they serve in becomes their second home and its seniors, peers and juniors transform into a band of brothers, celebrating festivals with comrades making up for the absence of family members.
Standing by each other through thick and thin develops a special bond between soldiers that transcends petty and fissiparous thoughts and beliefs. This gives the Indian Army the unique feature of its rank and file, celebrating every festival with equal fervour. This exemplary display of mutual respect for each other’s religion and participation in festivities of all faiths is something that needs to be emulated by those in civvy street.
Diwali celebrations in Jammu and Kashmir this year were no different than that in the past and Brighter Kashmir filmed and posted a video of Indian Army soldiers celebrating this festival in Bandipora district’s remote Gurez sector, about 123 kilometres north of Srinagar, which has gone viral on the internet. The nearly two-minute-long video, which has a heart-wrenching song from the popular Bollywood movie Shershaah in the background, starts with a small child dressed in army fatigues, smartly saluting a soldier while receiving sweets from him. Thereafter, armed soldiers are seen distributing sweets to local men, women and children.
The popularity of the video can be gauged from the fact that within a week of posting, it has been viewed by nearly a million people, evoked over 80,000 reactions and has been shared tens of thousands of times. The extraordinary positive response that this video has evinced indicates the immense popularity of the Indian Army and is a matter of great pride for those in olive green.
For more than three decades, the people of J&K have suffered a lot due to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Despite being heavily committed to fighting this proxy war, the Indian Army has simultaneously been reaching out to the hapless locals through comprehensive grassroots public welfare initiatives under Project Sadbhavana (goodwill) that aims to apply the much-needed balm to soothe the wounded psyche of terrorised locals.
The army has undertaken several programmes in areas of skill development, sports, education, health and culture which have helped thousands and contributed to a quantum improvement in the quality of lives of the locals. Through its sustained efforts, the army has firmly established that it genuinely cares for the well-being of the people of J&K and that’s why Pakistan’s desperate efforts to demonise the Indian Army have not succeeded.
Some of its popular initiatives include the Super-30 scheme, which provides free coaching to meritorious Kashmiri youth for one year. A collaboration of the Indian Army, NEIDO and HPCL, this initiative provides them with the chance to hone their skills and appear for medical entrance exams like MBBS, AIIMS and NEET.
Mission Reach-out is another initiative of the Indian Army which involves setting up communication centres to eradicate communication gaps between Kashmiris and people in other parts of the country. There are many other programmes like providing essential medical services and other necessities as well as promoting a culture of education across the valley. Setting up multi-speciality medical camps and de-addiction centres to help the youth, the poor and the needy in J&K’s far-flung districts, distributing books and sports equipment, organising cultural and sports events, and encouraging the empowerment of women are some of the other initiatives undertaken by the army.
The Indian Army’s Project Sadbhavana has yielded very good results and made a positive change in the lives of people caught in the crossfire. Today, countless youngsters from the Valley are eminent jurists, engineers, doctors, and civil servants in part due to the educational and skill development programs organised by the army.
Having realised that in order to further its own self-serving interests, they are being used as mere pawns by Pakistan, the people of Kashmir now see the Indian Army as their saviours. Times in Kashmir are changing for the better and with things looking up, the future looks bright!
The author is Editor Brighter Kashmir, Author, TV commentator, political analyst and columnist. Email: [email protected]. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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