Respect a Soldier as a professional first and last.


Honourable Justice Katju has made a  point in his article " Should we honour Indian soldiers of WW1 ?', which is on his blog justicekatju.blogspot.in where in he has advcocated that India Gate should be demolished as it is built in memory of mercenary soldiers who did not fight for India but for the British in WW1.
--- My take on Honourable Judge’s observation is that although these men were mercenaries and no doubt the war was fought between, two exploiting  world powers of that era for business interests and that India did not figure for anything more than it's mercenary soldiers who were used by British as mere gunfodder, but what we can not ignore is that the soldiers who died were Indians, honourable Indian soldiers who would send some money to their home and family which kept their home and hearth going.

They were poor people but brave people who in adverse circumstances chose to be an honourable sepoy rather than being a thug on the Indian highways or beg on the street. What ever the case may have been, whatever the demerits of those who employed them may have been, these soldiers fought for honour and with honour which was more personal than British and let me submit that same is the case today.

Today also at the spur of the moment soldiers make supreme sacrifices for personal, family and regimental honour. Tricolour or Parc̱am-e Sitārah o-Hilāl goes up only after a soldier falls in line of duty for his honour and spirit of camaraderie. Let us keep the memorial for the sake of the brave souls. They were simple brave men who laid down their lives for honour and not for their employers. I know it because I am a soldier.   Respect a Soldier as a professional............. It is the least a soldier deserves, where he comes for and whom he fights for is not important. For him its his duty that he values before his own limb and life and we value him because he values his duty more than his life. This is the reason that the 10th Sikh Master, Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji had ordered that even injured enemy soldiers must be given first aid and water by his sikhs. He knew the value of it because he too was not just a Saint but a Soldier as well.

Jai Hind. Poet Balwant Gurunay aka Guru Gurunay.

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