Himalaya bows, sobs and soaks in tears and stands taller in its own quiet way today as nation bids a befitting farewell to India’s ill-fated 12 brave heroes-in -arms and a wife of a top soldier, a mother of two daughters. Their mortal remains went up into the airs only to be merged with the ‘panchtatav’ of this millennium-old motherland.
The outburst of feelings that nation sees today for the heroes whom the nation lost not in-harness, but in an IAF helicopter crash on December 8, adds to the pain of loss. But they still inspire us and our soldiers that “it might have been destined that way ..some better things to come”, to use words of Aashna, 17, a brave daughter of Brig LS Liddder.
It is no celebration or mourning of death, it is celebration of life so that life becomes more worth living and death worth dying for. Perhaps this is what the bereaved family members want to tell this in their hour of grief.
Gen Bipin Rawat will go down in the history of Indian armed forces as a “People’s General” and a Tiger son of the Himalaya whose only mission in life was to: Outmanoeuvre nation’s enemy. He and his wife Madhulika Rawat along with their two daughters Kritika and Tarini Rawat led a simple life away from the modern trappings of army and modern life in Noida most part of their time when he was in border postings.
Gen Rawat was the first Chief of Defence Staff, a four-star general. Wherever he went, he mingled with people, interacted with them always with a message- love your motherland.
Strategic analysts and netizens including top soldiers have poured praises on social media for the “great soldier-with-simple living and high thinking”, who was a true patriot.
Like India’s only Field Marshal legendary Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw and Gen K Sunderji and older Dogra Gen Zorawar Singh, Gen Rawat was also a breed apart, who can be cast in the same league, said his fans. Gen Rawat is known for his strategic abilities and his reformist zeal for making Indian armed forces as a leading professional armed force in the world, said his fans.
Recalling his association with Gen Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat, Lt Gen (retd) P R Shankar, who has penned a book on Gen Rawat, whose posts are viral on social media, he says, “He as a GOC 3 corps in Dimapur, made surgical strikes across Myanmar borders and smashed terrorists camps in 2016. Thereafter he made surgical strikes in POK and Jabatop Balakot in Pakistan in 2019.
To top all, Gen Rawat burst the “invincible bubble” of the Chinese PLA and stopped it at Dokhlam in 2017. He has decided to capture the Kailash range. He also forced PLA to retreat 8 km from Finger 4 of Pangong Lake by forcing them to destroy their own bunkers. He worked on the strategic “jointness of Indian armed forces” and gave Indian armed forces a new shape.
“Gen Rawat has left behind a hard and strategical confident India to take a rightful place in world affairs”, observed Lt Gen Shankar.
Gen Rawat was born in the family of Lt Gen late Laxman Rawat, who himself was also a great soldier in the Indian army. But Rawats lived a simple pahadi life and their parental house in Sain village in Pauri Garhwal is a living testimony to their simplicity of a pahadi family of Uttarakhand.
Madhulika Rawat and her daughters also stayed away from modern trappings. “She was a great lady, She took care of their home base when Bipin served India at its borders for long”.
For the best part she stayed at Noida in a completely civilian setup, looking after their parents, bringing up their young daughters while eschewing modern trappings and benefits of army life. “Madhulika was an epitome of simple grace and goodness, I and my wife will miss both of them and our hearts go out to their daughters in this hour of grief”, Lt Gen Shankar said in his post.
Sudarshan Patnaik, a sculpture artist from Orissa paid his tribute to Gen Rawat by his great work of sandart at Puri beach (see photo), painting a live portrait of Gen Rawat on the beach. Shashi Adkar took out a leaf and soared it up in the sky with a living caricature of Bipin Rawat with lofty horizons in the background to place Gen higher as a mark of respect- a video clip that is viral now.
Brig Lidder is also remembered as a brave soldier and an officer and gentleman with a nerve of steel. Brig Lidder was about to be promoted as a Major General, said the sources in the army.
“He was a loving father, my guide and my friend. At times I used to get scared for being pampered a bit more. Perhaps destiny has it this way and may be it happened for some better things to come.”, said Aashna before she sobbed into tears bidding adieu to her father Brig Lidder in Delhi today.
Her mother Geetika has the same bold message to tell to people. “He was a brave soldier, we should give him a good farewell and a smiling send-off. He was a loving father. I am a wife of a soldier. Life is long”, she said with a heavy smile gracefully hidden in her sobbing heart and eyes heavy with dried-up tears.
Geetika and Aashna are not alone. With heavy hearts, they along with other bereaved members have same bold message to the world showing that they have nerves of steel like their departed heroes and they have become real torch bearers for the nation.
The martyrs including Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat got the resounding 17-gun salute with full military honours in Delhi command headquarters before he along with his wife and 11 brave hearts of India embarked on a new journey after performing their yeoman service to the nation.
Prime Minister Narender Modi and his cabinet colleagues, Chiefs of the armed forces, leaders from all parties and people from all walks of life paid their tributes to the departing bravehearts today.
Delhi and other cities and command headquarters were not alone in saluting the departed brave soldiers.
From the remotest villages along the Line of Actual Control(LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh to Lal Chowk of Srinagar, from Sain village of Gen Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat in Pauri Garhwal to the golden beaches of Orrisa, people came out in solidarity with the bereaved members of the families of the valiant soldiers. They staged candle march and paid floral tributes to the departed soldiers and prayed for peace for their departed souls.
Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat were going in an IAF Mi-17V5 to the Wellington Defence College to deliver a lecture on December 4. They were accompanied by Brig Lidder, Wg cdr PS Chauhan, Sqr leader K Singh, JWO Rana Pratap Das, JWO Pradeep A, Naik Jitender Kumar (3, para SF), Lt Col Harjinder Singh, Hawaldar Satpal Raj, Lance Naik Vivek Kumar (I Para SF), NK Gursewak Singh (9, Para SF), Lance Naik BS Teja, 11 Para (SF). Before it could land at Wellington helipad, the IAF helicopter crashed at Kateri village near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu and killed them.
Only survivor of the crash was Grp Capt Varun who is under treatment at the military hospital Wellington. Showing placards, “legend never dies”, large number of people including children came out from their homes in frigid temperature and performed the candle light ceremony paying their tributes to Gen Rawat and his wife and 11 brave sons of India in remote village near LAC, Arunachal Pradesh.
Chetan Sharma and Dharampal Gupta, the two 1973 batchmates of Gen. Rawat in St Edwards school in Shimla could not hold their emotions, “It was unbelievable he died in a crash. We are all shocked as we have lost a great soldier, a true patriot. It is great loss to the nation. His words will continue to inspire students. Bipin as a student was reserved and always carried a smiling face. He always used to say that he would join the army. Even till recent time his wife used to be in touch with us on whatsapp group. We pray their soul rest in peace”.
Himachal Pradesh Vidhan sabha observed two minute silence in the House in honour of the martyrs. The locals and soldiers in Ladakh and Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti also paid their tributes to the brave soldiers.
Legends never die.
(Kuldeep Chauhan, Editor HimbuMail, voice of Himalayan People)
