The Great Divide

We organised this high profile seminar on Women and Terrorism day before yesterday. It had in attendance the leading female dignitaries of the city. We also ensured that the highly educated ladies from all walks of life came. A leading lady police officer of IG rank and other police wives were also in attendance along with some other ladies like doctors, army wives, dieticians, psychologists, teachers and so on. As the evening progressed and the seminar got in full swing, one of our army wives was recounting her first hand experience of terrorism while posted in Assam. Her husband had suffered serious injuries during an encounter and then this lady police officer recounted and shared her experiences. Everybody just listened to the both of them in stunned silence. The lady further said that though she respects all of the India’s armed forces but feels that there is a great divide between the respects people hold for the army personnel. While a great majority of our population holds negative opinions about the police personnel it is not the same, in case of the Indian army.

She said such are a strong sentiments for the Indian army that a common man is just not ready to accept them as corrupt or criminals even if it is proved legally. These sentences actually got me thinking and this is a FACT!! So however discriminatory is the sixth pay commission report and whatever may be the attitude of the governments, the truth remains we are indeed the most respected ones. The janta loves us…………. All we need is a platform where the love of our countrymen is directly conveyed to us.

There are number of ways we can make a difference not only to the life of a soldier, but also to their families. With so many years of military lifestyle with me I can truthfully say that the soldiers need our support now more than ever before. There has been enough of political drama, far too many debates and just too much of hypocrisy. I feel that let’s now for once take the reigns in our hands and make them all feel special and loved. And why only the faujis lets for once love all our forces like the defence, the police , the paramilitary and so on……………….The too deserve it!!!