DEFENDERS SEEK HELP

Highlighting the plight of ex-servicemen, especially wives of deceased personnel, several hundreds former soldiers and officers protest silently.

This chapter is about the plight of those people who battle it out on the borders, keeping awake, protecting the country from any kind of foreign invasion. They are the men and women who work for the Indian Armed forces. The job that these people do is higher in comparison to any other jobs. They work in inhuman conditions, live through snow and rain, survive on minimum food, barely see their families, do not enjoy the pleasures of a luxurious life and yet they work for the country and towards the betterment of the same.

They do so much but what do they get? The plight of the ex-servicemen is in a terrible condition. Newspapers flashes with the poor state of these people when they retire are quite common. Every few days there is an article talking about ex-servicemen either selling their medals, returning the same, staging dharnas etc. With a meager pension which does not suffice and cannot support their living, they move to such methods so that someone could hear them. And they are hearing, no doubt. But in a way that leaves them frustrated or anguished so badly that their self esteem and pride that they had been carrying for so long, comes shattering down.

Politicians here them out but in their own fashion. As the media goes about hyping the plight of the ex-servicemen, politicians lend them a deaf ear, pull out a few reforms on a temporary basis and then go back to their sweet slumber. This is ‘amazing’, as little do the politicians realise what these servicemen have gone through.

Deeply hit by the careless attitude, they continue to stage protests in their own silent ways, hoping that one day things would change for the good in their favour, until then they continue to adopt to desperate measures like retuning their medals which ‘were’ the symbol of pride to them.