Our local Thermopylae…but did you notice?

On 14th April, a news piece came that told about an incident that should be told and retold as an example of why inspite of everything being stacked against us, India’s democracy still pulls through…

The first lines reported in the article, written by an obviously moved reporter, suffices as the best introduction to this soon to be forgotten heroic incident…

“ For 10 hours, a band of 22 CISF jawans battled more than 200 heavily armed Maoists, without backup or reinforcements, and saved the lives of 150 Nalco staff who were held hostage by the guerrillas in Orissa's Damanjodi since Sunday night.”

Read the rest of the article  (or here) here before reading further

A few reflections will bring out why remembering this is so important to us…

We don’t even know who or what CISF are. But then, even if it is replaced by CRPF, our awareness grows a notch but its still not something we can relate to. These men guard some of our most prized assets – infrastructure and their human capital yet they have never been proper security forces in our eyes. They are usually relegated to the status of mere guards. They do not have the dashing that has been marketed as the image of the armed forces.

We reserve all our adulations for the Indian army. They deserve all of it – they are one of the special reasons that this country still stands. But here I believe that this adulation on our part has a large part of self-interest as an ingredient. Because we feel that we are threatened more by what may come across the borders, we tend to put the ones who keep them at bay, on a pedestal.

Naxalism is a malaise that is eating away our innards. The alarm has been raised but we don't have seem to have ingested the danger enough. That is why we don't seem to appreciate the sacrifice made by the  men fighting the enemy inside the gates…

These men showed almost foolish showed bravery when they could have surrendered or run. They instead stayed and saved lives. This, when the insurgents were superior in arms and overwhelmingly so in numbers.

Because we cant relate our safety to the actions of these men, because their heroism seems remote to us – because of all this, we will soon forget what they did for us. Soon, their stories will be drowned in more newsworthy buzz – elections and IPL…(by elections i mean the circus, not the people who have been killed by the Maoists – they are similar unsung heroes)

But for the moment, let us realize that the much vaunted democracy that we boast around the world is not due to the politician on the dais but is due to poorly armed, outnumbered industrial guards defying terrorism in some forgotten corner of the country…

END OF POST