Jingoism over, NCC cadets discover other side of Kargil

A student of Poona College, Girish was part of the Shradhanjali Cycle Expedition that travelled through Marathwada and visited families of 14 Kargil martyrs. Organised by the 51 Maharashtra Battallion, Aurangabad, the expedition chose 20 NCC cadets from across Maharashtra. “It was an attempt at letting the families of martyrs know the entire nation is with them,” says Col R S Yadav of 51 Maharashtra.

Cycling some 125 km every day, the cadets visited little villages, such as Sonpeth, in the interiors. They compiled information on the problems faced by the families. “In some cases, compensation by the government had not reached the families,” says cadet Sanjay Makhija from Poona College. This information has been handed over to NCC Deputy Director General S K Mehta and will be forwarded to the District Sainik Welfare Officer in Delhi.

The Pune group was represented by four cadets. They cycled across Marathwada covering 1,680 km. Brig. Mehta says, “It was an opportunity for our boys to talk to the families and know about the problems they encountered. This way, they also sent out a message to the families that the nation had not forgotten them.”

For the cadets, visiting the families was an altogether different experience. “Nothing that we saw on television can be compared to this experience. We realised that families from the economically weaker sections were finding it difficult to cope with the loss,” say the cadets. “Some live in poverty and are uneducated and ignorant about the benefits provided by the government,” says cadet Swaroop Hanchati of Nutan Marathi Mahavidyalaya.

So while some of the families expressed their pride, there were others whose pain had numbed any such feeling. “Many of them have lost the sole earning member of the family, like constable Parsaram Kandhare’s family in Bhor. The CRPF jawan’s father has been left to care for a physically-challenged son,” recounts Makhija. “He kept on repeating that there was no one to care for him and his wife in their old age.”

As they cycled through the countryside, meeting one family after another, the cadets had one thought on their minds. “These families have lost a member each and this is irreplaceable. We wanted to tell them that the nation’s heart beats with theirs and that we wanted to help.”