- Fallen IAF pilot gets Vir Chakra gallantry Award in most farcical manner, Abhinandan & Co are merely latest members of India’s Fake War Heroes Club
- Indian Army’s Grenadier Yoginder Singh Yadav, recipient of highest military award actually turned out to be a warfront absconder
- Indian Army’s Major Gogoi was awarded with Major Gogoi was awarded Chief of Army Staff’s Commendation Card after he earned World Shame for tying a Kashmiri citizen as Human Shield on his military jeep in IoK
- Grenadier Yoginder Singh Yadav, Havildar Sanjay Kumar and Major Gogoi top the list of India’s fake military heroes
From Christina Palmer &
Rekha Mohandas
India on Wednesday, made yet another farcical move, when, keeping the tradition of creating fake war heroes, it gave one of the top military gallantry to Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman and five other Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots who took part in the farcical Balakot operation.
While the Vir Chakra was awarded to Varthaman, the Vayu Sena Medal was awarded to Wing Commander Amit Ranjan, Squadron Leaders Rahul Basoya, Pankaj Bhujade, B.K.N. Reddy and Shashank Singh. This is not the fitst time that India has committed such an outrageous act but it actually has a strong history of creating fake war heroes through phony and spurious citations, reveal the investigations, carried out by The Daily Mail.
The Daily Mails findings indicate that after the Kargil conflict was over, the Army Headquarters at New Delhi, that were stormed by controversies and massive criticism, not only for the debacle at the war front but also for the massive financial wrongdoings in the direction of procurements by army, directed all the commanders of the Kargil front to immediately submit citations for the bravery of the soldiers so that the pressure from the political circles could be minimized nonetheless to boost up the morale of the demoralized troops. These findings indicate that in the hasty compliance of strong orders from the headquarters, the commanders at Kargil made a variety of blunders and submitted many fake citations with the recommendations of top military awards including the highest and the most prestigious PVC award.
The Daily Mails findings reveal that the wrong citations started surfacing soon and the biggest blunder in this regard emerged when the farcical episode of PVC recipient Grenadier Yoginder Singh Yadave began to unveiled as Yoginder was found hiding at a military hospital in New Delhi while, following the fake citations of his commanders, the government of Indian awarded him with the posthumous (after death) PVC award. The Daily Mail’s investigations further reveal that instead of admitting this blunder, Indian army leadership and government at New Delhi, both tried to “manage” the blunder by terming the entire issue being a case of misidentification and continued to treat the warfront absconder as a war hero.
The Daily Mails findings indicate that a variety of allegations of financial embezzlements under the grab of combating a war with Pakistan during Kargil conflict and the accusations of below average performance by the troops rang alarm bells at the Military Headquarters in New Delhi and the top brass started taking all the measures for face saving and the hurriedly invited citations from the field commanders was the top step, taken under extreme pressure. These findings indicate that the first major baseless citation in this direction that hit the headlines of the media across the world was that of Grenadier Yoginder Singh Yadave of the Gathak platoon of the Indian army. Yadave was awarded with Posthumous Param Vir Chakra in the light of the citations of his commanders for fighting with extraordinary bravery at Kargil front. However the international media, soon after the announcement of the award, discovered that the brave martyred, recipient of posthumous PVC award was not only alive but was hiding was actually an absconder who ran away from the war front by hiding himself under the bodies of some dead and critically injured fellow soldiers and managed to make it to a local field military hospital and from there, he managed to make it further to the main military medical facility at New Delhi with fake identification. His actual whereabouts surfaced when local and international media spotted him to be present, and present very much alive after the Indian government awarded him with the posthumous PVC award, causing great humiliation and immense embarrassment to both the Indian government and Indian Army.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that in a bid to overcome this outrageous blunder, the Indian Army begun a high-level inquiry into the unpardonable mistake of declaring one of the Param Vir Chakra winners, Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav, dead, though he was actually an absconder and hiding in an army hospital in New Delhi. Senior army officers said it was at the Srinagar headquarters of the 15 Corps or Northern Command headquarters in Udhampur that was responsible for goof up .
These findings further indicate that the then Indian Army Chief General V.P Malik tendered an apology, while the Defence Ministry and accepted the mistake. Chief of Army Staff General VP Malik ordered an inquiry and warned of severe punishment for those responsible for the outrageous mistake but nothing has happened till today but on the other side, Yoginder was not deprived of the award until the outcomes of the inquiry committee, which never came up with any conclusion, enabling an absconder to enjoy the honour of being PVC recipient, though he has never been any out of the turn promotion etc, to recognize his bravery while such promotions and benefits otherwise come as a package for a PVC recipient in India.
The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that recommendation for any gallantry award for a soldier is initiated by the commanding officer of a battalion to the brigade headquarters. From the brigade headquarters it is passed on after scrutiny to the divisional headquarters and from there to the corps headquarters. From the corps, after detailed discussion and correlation of the claims, it is the send to the command headquarters, where from it is forwarded to the army headquarters in New Delhi but it appears that in the Kargil case, everybody did everything on emergency basis, without following the set procedures and thus committed serious blunders.
The Param Vir Chakra is awarded for rarest of the rare gallantry which is beyond the call of duty and which in normal life is considered impossible to do, but it seems that these pre-requisites never came under consideration in the process of awarding awards to Kargil fighters of Indian army, said Brig Singh, a former officer of the Indian army and now attached with a defence related think tank at New Delhi. He said a gallantry award is given for a particular act, and a soldier could win more than one gallantry award in a war for his different actions.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that while the Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra, Vir Chakra, Sena Medal etc are awarded to soldiers who go out to the field and fight the battle, for leadership qualities senior officers are selected for Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal, Uttam Yudh Seva Medal and Yudh Seva Medal. After the Kargil conflict, Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal was awarded to the chief of Western Command of the Indian Air Force, Air Marshal Vinod Patney, who is so far the second officer in Independent India’s history to be awarded this honour.
The Daily Mail’s findings disclose that just like Grenadier Yadavs case, Rifleman Sanjay Kumar was also falsely citied for bravery by his field commanders as he was seriously wounded after receiving bullets on chest as well as at the arms and was retrieved by the medical units in unconsciousness from the foot of a hill during the ceasefire hours.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate the a committee, that was formed to review the Kargil citations after the Yadav episode, disclosed that Rifleman Sanjay Kumar was also a fake hero., Kumar, in the meantime, was elevated to the rank of lance Naik and then to the rank of Havildar. In the light of the recommendations of the review committee, the Indian army decided not to make the new PVC blunder public and decided to hush-up the matter. However, later Kumar was not only demoted to the rank of Lance Naik but was also subjected to grave snubbing and humiliation by his seniors, making life miserable for the otherwise PVC recipient, in the army.
Havildar Sanjay Kumar was cited by his commanders for fighting with extraordinary bravery during the Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan, and was thus awarded the country’s highest gallantry award, the Param Vir Chakra and was promoted to rank of
Havildar from the lowest rank of Rifleman. These findings indicate that Kumar is among the only three surviving soldiers who received the highest peace and wartime honour. Apart from the 13th Jammu and Kashmir Rifles soldier, Yogendra Singh Yadav of 22 Grenadier and Subedar Major Bana Singh (Honorary Captain) are the only other PVC recipients who are still alive.
The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that Kumar, who was promoted to the rank of Havildar from Rifleman, was seen wearing the ranks of a Lance Naik during a function held to celebrate the Republic Day of India. The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal further that he was demoted from his rank of Havildar after he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra. When contacted by The Daily Mail, Military officials also refused to comment on the issue. But what could be a double insult to Kumar is that the Ministry of Defence continued to mention him as a Havildar in its press releases issued for the Republic Day.
In a Republic Day Parade he was seen wearing the ranks of a Lance Naik. But in the officials press releases he was mentioned as Havildar, a Defense Ministry official, requesting anonymity told The Daily Mail. It is worth mentioning here that all surviving Param Vir Chakra awardees join the march past at Rajpath every year on Republic Day. The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that the prestigious PVC recipient Lance Naik Kumar was later humiliated so much that he finally decided to quit the army and to opt for a private or civil job as he was a driver by profession before joining army.
The Indian Army sources confirm that Kumar has been offered a job by the Himachal Pradesh government, indicating that the disgraced soldier was planning to quit the Army. He (Kumar) is looking forward to completing his mandatory 17 years service in the Army and then take up another job. Himachal Pradesh government has offered him a good job, but he cannot leave without completing the mandatory years of service, said a senior official of the Indian Army, Brigadier R Vohra of the personnel directorate at the army headquarters.
Major Gen (retd) Sheru Thapliyal, who was military advisor during the Kargil operation refused to comment over the issue when contacted by The Daily Mail. Maj Gen Thapliyal had recommended promotion for the gallantry award winners. However repeated attempts to elicit a response from the Ministry of Defence over phone, e-mail by The Daily Mail proved futile while the Army also refused to comment over the issue.
The Daily Mail’s investigations further indicate that in another similar natured incident, Indian’s Army’s Major Gogoi was given the Chief of Army Staff’s Commendation Card, yet another gallantry award. Major Gogoi’s citation was made for his act of “acute gallantry” of tying an unarmed and innocent resident of Kashmir on his military jeep as a human shield, the act that actually earned the Indian Major a global Shame. Major Gogoi of the 53 Rashtriya Rifles was in the spotlight after a video, shot during the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-poll and posted on social media, showed a man tied on the bonnet of an army jeep in Badgam. The video went viral and drew anger and condemnation from all over the world but for Indian Army Chie, Bipin Rawat, it was an act for which the Major was given the said gallantry award.
In the latest case of creating Fake War Heroes, Indians appear to have run an extra mile as they have awarded 5 different officers for bravery. Though Indian could never prove it but they had been claiming that they downed one Pakistani Air Force jet and they never claimed more than that but how could 5 IAF pilots bee awarded for downing one enemy jet/, even if their claim is absorbed by some cow vigilante devotee. as for bombing Balakot site is concerned, no IAF officer could even be nominated for that as India’s deceased External Affairs Minister Sushma Suvraj had officially announced on behalf of the government of India that there was no causality caused during the IAF’s Balakot strike.
The Daily Mail’s investigations conclude that Wing Commander Abhinandan and his colleagues are though new members to this India’s Club of Fake Ware Heroes, but the tradition is fairly old now.
