Happened to see the trailer of 120 Bahadur by Farhan Akhtar. The movie brings the brave story of Major Shaitan Singh Bhati and the 123 Soldiers of the Kumaon Regiment, who fought till the last man and the last bullet against 3000+ Chinese soldiers, in the Battle of Rezang La The trailer was amazing, and it sent me to do some reading. At first, I was inspired. Then I stumbled upon a sad story that made me question the very character of us as a nation. But some history first. The 1962 War between India and China was independent India's first reality check of international relations. It all started with the India - China border, which was always a contentious one. Both didn't agree with each other on its definition. Our then PM who used to think that his personal charisma was enough as a diplomatic tool and thought fancy terms like Panchsheel and Speaking Good English in UN was enough to counter Chinese aggression, he embarked on what he called the "Forward Policy" It was a fancy term for sending unprepared soldiers to dispersed positions on mountain tops which were 18000 ft above sea level. And to make things worse, we sent them with inadequate clothing, equipment, weapons, intelligence and an absolute lack of strategy. The Chinese predictably took advantage of this cluelessness and attacked us. Initially they raked up victory after victory in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh. They even captured Tawang. They thought this war would be a walkover and trained their eyes on Ladakh. They thought capturing Ladakh would be easy. Unfortunately, they didn't account for Major Singh and his 123 men from the Kumaon Regiment. On 18th Nov 1962, they came to an isolated place in Ladakh called Rezang La. It was the last point between them and another place called Chushul, which was the gateway to Ladakh. Lulled into a false sense of confidence and expecting an easy victory, 3000 Chinese soldiers thought all they had to do was walk in and they would capture Rezang la. But Major Singh and his men had other ideas. On that day, they decided to show the Chinese what a Great wall actually looked like. At 18,000 feet above sea level, in temperatures which were 20 to 30 degrees below zero, Major Singh and his men, using Machine Guns and mortars repelled wave after wave of Chinese invaders. At times, when they ran out of ammo, they resorted to brutal hand to hand fighting to throw the Chinese back. For 6-8 hours, Major Singh and his men sent hundreds of Chinese to the Chinese version of Valhalla. They fought with such incredible daring and bravery that they gave a serious inferiority complex to the Spartans of Thermopylae. Unfortunately, the Chinese had too many soldiers, and eventually they surrounded Major Singh and his men. Of his 123 men, 114 men, including Maj Singh made the ultimate sacrifice for the country. Most of them died, with their weapons in hand and facing toward the enemy. It was a performance that made Gods weep. The performance of Major Singh and his men shocked the Chinese. This was the fiercest resistance they had faced till that point in the war. Realizing things aren't going to be easy for them anymore, three days later, they declared a unilateral ceasefire and withdrew. For his Supreme Sacrifice and his bravery that would make Lord Narasimha himself proud, Major Bhati was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously. His brave exploits had not only moved India. It had made an impact on the Chinese and the Americans as well. So much so, that they still teach about him and his men in the PLA War College and West Point, on how to defend. But this post is not about his brave saga. I am sure Farhan Akhtar would tell it better than me. This post is about what his family faced at the hands of our heartless and rapacious bureaucracy and our impotent judiciary, after his heroic sacrifice. As a wife of a fallen hero, Major Singh's widow Sugan Kunwari was eligible for 60% of Major Singh's salary as pension. But for some reason, she was only given 30%. The Govt as gratuity gave Rs 4000 to her in 1963, and given what Major Singh had done, they bloody well had to. But the govt babudom being govt babudom, they recovered it from her pension in 1964. The Indian babu who actually passed this order was like "You could be a war hero and might have repelled the Chinese and all, but you can't repel our rules and regulations" Then the Indian govt "liberalized" the pension rules in 1972, but Sugan Kunwari continued receiving the pension under the old scheme till, I kid you not, 1996. Add to that, she was supposed to get a gratuity of Rs 9500 as per the new rules. She didn't get that as well. I guess maybe some memo granting her the pension, got blocked in some file on a random table in South Block. To claim his rightful money, the family of Major Singh filed a case in the Armed forces Tribunal - Jaipur in 1996, for the arrears between 1972 and 1995 and the revised gratuity. They didn't even ask for retrospective implementation of pension rules since 1962, because unlike the rotten scoundrels of our bureaucracy, they were honest people. And this was the money that was rightfully theirs. Ideally speaking, the day someone finds out that a hero like Major Singh was wronged, every authority, every official, every armed force guy would move heaven and earth to right that wrong. As a war hero, we think his files would have been processed in record time and within 24 hours, the family of Major Singh would have received the shortfall with interest, and an apology note from the seniormost army general of the area, right? Wrong The case my friends, 30 years later, is still going on. Major Singh's widow, unfortunately passed away in 2015 without a verdict and was still receiving the old pension. His son continued the case, but he has not been heard since 2016, as there was apparently no judge at the Armed forces tribunal in Jaipur. As of 2021, when there are last traces of this case, it was still going on. If the family of a war hero, who gave his life for the nation, a Param Vir Chakra awardee, someone whose bust the govt inaugurated in the national war memorial in all pomp and glory, and someone who is a hero to us all, is treated like this by our babudom, then what chance do we stand? There is a line in the song based on this war which says "Kar Chale hum fida jaano, ab tumhare hawale watan saathiyon" Major Singh gave his life so that we could have our country and our tomorrow. Have we justified his sacrifice? I don't think we have. The nation which forgets is real heroes, is doomed to live with false useless ones. I think we should all be ashamed of ourselves. P:S: Considering the difference, I don't think the total amount would be more than Rs 10 Lakhs, including interest. This is the bribe money that a corrupt clerk collects before lunch time. Or a corrupt judge throws out in a raid. And we strung Major Singh's family for this, for over 30 years now.