DefenceIndia Special

In the world of cinema, great stress is laid on portraying a character as close to real life as possible. No stone is left unturned to show a real world as it happens!

This pursuit towards realism has made many a theatre activist and a creative artist famous and people have showered gifts, awards and rewards.

It may seem unreal, but In India, this search of realism has led Our sentinels to be creative and use theatric antics in their professional capacity. This is not merely rhetoric but a fact.

Brigadiers, Colonels and Majors have faced flak in recent times when they stage managed an encounter with the enemy, laced their bodies with tomato sauce and filmed the entire scene which was shown on all TV Channels and received brilliant publicity. These officers were in turn rewarded with promotions and decorated out of turn by their superiors.

These officers, hitherto considered Heroes, have now been exposed and face the honour of being cashiered and humiliated in front of their fellow-men.

The officers are now relegated to the nomenclature of Ketchup Colonels!

The chief, Gen J J Singh, has spoken strongly against these officers and assured the nation of checks and balances that will ensure that these do not occur again.

I would like to draw a parallel, wherein officers who have not been able to do or they may have been perceived to, neglect or perform below accepted norms, their duty during their tenure, have always shown remarkable conscience after their stint is over with the forces. There have been stories galore, wherein real heroes have projected the same aura, capability and stance in civilian life.

Raj Kumar Santoshi in his seminal work, 'China Gate', profiled a handful of such people. In another move, Zameen, Abhishek Bachhan is weighed down by his conscience and the movie sees him destroying single-handedly a battery of enemies.

These are men of conscience who preffered to chalk out a way of life, by truthful living and living by honour.

How will the society look at the Ketchup Colonels, in their civilian avatar? This is a query that DefenceIndia seeks to address and shall now present to its worthy readers, personality sketches of Real Winners - the ex-servicemen who have made successes of their civilian pursuits.

Events: As they occurred

2003, Siachen- A major with the help of his troops stage managed the killings of enemy personnel and destruction of enemy bunkers.

Troops staged fake battles on the world's highest battleground and made false claims about killing Pakistani soldiers in a bid to win medals for gallantry.

The Indian soldiers shot "hazy videos" of faked battles on the Siachen glacier, posing as dead enemy troops and even destroying one of their own bunkers.

To make their claim realistic, Indian troops built an air defence bunker on their side of the glacier and destroyed it with rockets and mortars', claiming it was a Pakistani bunker.

2004, Jammu- Four natives of a border hamlet were killed in a fake encounter claiming them to be militants to get gallantry awards.

Major Vijay Singh Chahar, Naik Jai Singh and riflemen Dilip and Jasveer, promising employment to the four, brought them to a company of 18 Rastriya Rifles at Lolab valley in the north Kashmir, on April 13, 2004.

A week later, on April 20, all four were allegedly killed in a fake encounter near Dewar village of Lolab and weapons were planted on them to brand them as terrorists. The plan was made and executed at the unit level. A Tata Sumo vehicle was also hired to carry out the action.

2004- Col H S Kohli, Commanding Officer of an artillery regiment, took photographs of civilians splashed with tomato sauce and posing as corpses and gave them to his seniors to stake claim for gallantry award as a proof of separatist killing in 2003 at Bada Nagadun near Silchar in Assam, an army spokesman said on Friday.

The fraud was discovered when the claim was being processed following which court martial proceedings were launched against him.

Col Kohli was dismissed and another Major was punished with a loss of five service years for conniving with Col H S Kohli.

2005- A Major-General, Gur Iqbal Singh was reported to have supplied the CSD Liquor in the civil market while he was commanding 6 Mountain Division in Bareilly. He is likely to face a court martial for allegedly misappropriating funds and selling defence canteen liquor in the open market.

2006 April - Three years after some middle-rung Army officers made news for faking militant kills in a bid to garner gallantry medals, a senior officer, Brigadier Suresh Rao, is now in the dock for encouraging such dubious ventures.

After the dismissal of Col H S Kohli in this case it came in the light that he was just a pawn in the hands of his superiors. Col Kohli had been directed by his superiors to carry out such 'operations' since the performance of Army formations is largely evaluated on the basis of the "number of kills"achieved in counter-insurgency operations. Court Martial is slated to begin soon.