The Sunday Guardian: New Delhi: Sunday, August 13, 2017.
In an RTI
reply sent to The Sunday Guardian the Ministry of Defence has said that ‘the term
Martyr is not being used in the Indian Army.
The Ministry
of Defence does not have the definition of a “martyr” in its official records.
This has been revealed by the Ministry in an RTI reply to The Sunday Guardian.
Army veterans have raised concern over the issue and have been asking the
government to define a “martyr” in official terms.
In the RTI
reply, the Ministry of Defence has said that the classification of casualty in
the Indian Army is defined as “Battle” or “Physical” casualty and “the term
Martyr is not being used in the Indian Army.”
Colonel
(Retd.) Karan Thapar thinks that the Indian Army should have a proper definition
of a “martyr” in its official records. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, he
said, “Just because we did not have the definition of a ‘Martyr’ so far does
not mean that we can’t introduce it now. According to me, a person who is dying
for a cause and due to an enemy action is a martyr.”
“What
happened is that people started terming those dead as martyrs, even if they had
lost their lives due to sickness or accidents in the field area. In the public
mind, a martyr is worthy of special respect for a special act he has done. I
find no reason why the Army cannot introduce a new terminology, instead of
calling all deaths as casualty in Battle or Physical. A Martyr status holds
great respect for the person who laid down his life defending the country from
the enemy on the first line of action,” Colonel (Retd.) Thapar added.
General
(Retd.) S.P. Sinha also raised concerns on why the Indian Army has not yet been
able to define the term “Martyr” in military lexicon.
Speaking to
The Sunday Guardian, he said, “A Martyr is a fauji (soldier) who laid down his
life for the country and the government needs to define the term in its
official record. The Army should also maintain a record of all martyrs so that
each family gets its due in time. I also think that the definition should be
passed by the government in Parliament as an Act of Parliament.”
General
(Retd.) G.D. Bakshi thinks that “martyr” is just a colloquial English term and
is not a word used in military lexicon.
“Until all
due is given to the person who has died defending his country, how does it
matter whether we define martyr or not? A soldier who lays down his life for
the country is anyway a martyr in the minds of the people and there is a proper
standard operating procedure followed in the Army where due respect and state
honours are given to the person who has laid down his life fighting the enemy.”
In the RTI
reply to The Sunday Guardian, the Indian Air Force said that an ex-gratia of Rs
25 lakh, Rs 35 lakh, and Rs 45 lakh is given to the next of kin of the deceased
personnel who died while performing bonafide official duty, killed in action by
militants, terrorists, extremists or sea pirates or international war.
However,
according to the RTI reply, the Indian Air Force does not have a separate provision
of providing jobs to dependents of Indian Air Force personnel killed in action.