He always talked about doing great things for the country

Lunawat is the only survivor among the three men who have been awarded the second-highest gallantry award for conspicuous gallantry during peace time this year. The other recipients are Naik G. Varghese of 14 Assam and Sepoy Sanjeev Singh of 18 Dogra. As India celebrates its 50th year as a republic, the heroes who sacrificed their lives fighting insurgency are being decorated for their deeds. But for their near and dear ones, their death means a long trail of hardships.

This year, 333 Armed Forces personnel have been awarded for gallantry and distinguished service. Thirty two of them have been decorated posthumously for their gallant action while fighting insurgents in the North-East and Jammu and Kashmir.

“The Army suffers casualties every day in the North-East and Jammu and Kashmir during counter-insurgency operations yet their valour hardly gets recognition,” a senior Army official said. Lt General Yuvraj Mehta, military secretary at the Army Headquarters, said: “It’s an actual war going on in these areas and soldiers are making supreme sacrifices which remain hidden.”

According to available reports, the Army lost 1,375 men and 2,237 of its personnel were injured in Kashmir alone from 1988 to April 1997. In the North-East, the Army and police lost 459 personnel and another 250 were injured between January 15, 1995, and September 30, 1997.

Describing the situation there, Havaldar Lunawat of 10 Para Commando (SF) says that he spotted eight to 10 people approaching him during an operation and two of them even came near and wished him. But before they could fire at him, he pushed and shot them, receiving bullet injuries in the process. The 37-year-old Lunawat, who has been involved in many operations in Sri Lanka, Ruanda, Punjab and the North-East, says that it is serving the nation rather than winning awards that matters most to him.

Blaming politics for the problems in Jammu and Kashmir, Surabhi Datta, whose husband Major Rohit Datta has been awarded the Sena Medal posthumously this year, says: “The leaders have failed to resolve the Kashmir issue even after 5O years.” Major Rohit Datta of the 12 Rashtriya Rifles died fighting militants in the Banihal area of Jammu and Kashmir on July 1, 1997.

Surabhi, a teacher in a Delhi administration school, says her husband’s death has changed the course of her and their five-year-old son Archit’s life. Sobbing, she appeals to militants, whom she calls “misguided youths”, to shun violence and join the mainstream. Lambasting human rights groups, she says: “These groups champion the cause of militants. Are there no human rights for the men in uniform who are brutally massacred by militants? What about their next of kin who are left in the lurch?”

Even after being crippled in action in Manipur on November 27, 1997, Naib Subedar Joginder Singh of the 14 Sikh Light Infantry, the recipient of a Sena Medal, considers militants his brethren who are alienated and instigated by anti-India powers. “I don’t consider militants to be enemies. They are disgruntled youths and it’s through political will and not military action that they will rejoin the mainstream,” says Singh, who was posted in Siachen, the world’s highest battlefield, in 1985. Nivedita, who now lives with her parents and is pursuing a career in teaching, says she is proud of her husband who was sincere and dedicated to the cause of the Army. “He always talked about doing great things for the country and he proved it by sacrificing his life. Even during the encounter, he himself went to the forefront and fought the militants, saving the lives of jawans,” she says.

Paramjit Kaur’s husband Lance Naik Narender Singh of 21 Punjab died on June 28 last year in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir during an encounter. She is still in a state of shock, hardly believing that her husband is no more. Paramjit has to now not only to take care of her nine-month-old daughter but also her polio-stricken sister-in-law and aged father and mother-in-law.