This is the update for today. I met Colonel Gauri Shankar and he asked me few questions on, what does that we want.
1. Compensation 2. Recognition 3. Retribution He said that all the defence personnel are heavily insured and the martyrs get more benefits. So on the money front, there might not be an issue. As this is a very well-known case, may be they would have got the money. If that is not so, we can support him. Recognition, it is very very bad in India. He also responded like Chaitanya. Here only political leaders and cricketers are heroes. But in other countries war heroes are real heroes. He also mentioned the deaths of two Majors. One is Major K.P. Vinay of Hyderabad and one more is from other states it seems. Retribution we cannot do. We cannot go on war with Pakistan for this issue. What is that Dr. Kalia is seeking? What does he want? If something is pending from govt. or his petitions ignore etc., He also asked how do you know him and what is that you want to get? I was like surprised on why is he asking being a Major. I replied like I do not know them in person. I could speak to him as I got the number. What I get is satisfaction and I love and respect my soldiers. So I want to fight for justice. He replied like, Good. I wanted to listen to your reply. In India, people will think on what is the benefit these people get. You will be asked such questions. He shared one of his experiences. He has spent his personal money Rs. 1.5 lakh to set up a water plant in Malkapur, Nalgonda Dt. (It is another big issue. People of Nalgonda dt. are the victims of Chlorine and Flouride) Later the govt. contributed another 1.5 lakh rupees for this plant. The sarpanch asked colonel 'saab, aap ko kyaa miltaa ye karne se'. I replied to him like we cannot get back the soldiers and may be we can give money (which the govt. might have given) and may be felicitating those families. This is just a reaction. What is our action? What is our action to handle this kind of cases? If we keep quiet, they will repeat the same. (In fact, I remember reading the similar torture on Indian soldiers patrolling on Bangla borders. I can never forget the name of the Officer, Major Fazlur Rehman. This is after one or two years of the Kargil incident.) He said that we can file an RTI and we can pursue with different forums like Ex-servicemen and all. And also we can write to particular regiment where Lt. Kaliya served and can get the details of the other soldiers as well. What is most crucial now is the response from Dr. Kalia. After meeting the Colonel, I went to an STD booth and spoke with Dr. Kalia. He said that he received my mail and as he went out of station, he couldn't reply. He will mail me with all the details by this evening. He told that the issue has to be taken up by Ministry of External Affairs and even Prime Minister, Army Chief and other higher officials assured of justice but no breakthrough yet. It seems he is fighting for human rights issue here leave alone Geneva declaration. His voice is shivering and I couldn't understand what he is trying to say. He again thanked all of us for our support and when I said that he shouldn't thank us but we should thank him for his son. He told that Saurav is not his son but he is the son of the country. When he is saying those words I could feel the sense of pride in his voice. We all have to work together. We have to wait till we get the details from Dr. Kalia. Once I get the details, I will forward them to Colonel Gauri Shankar and also Major Shiv Kiran. Based on their suggestions, we can decide the next course of action.
