After all, soldiers are not cannon fodder

The Prime Minister’s visit to Leh also comprised a supposed visit to the Military Hospital where he met the injured soldiers. The pictures from the visit created a huge furore in social media. Most comments refuted the government’s claim and called out the lie.

It followed the pattern we have got used to for the last few years. The government is half-good at churning out propaganda. Then the issue snowballs into aye-sayers and nay-sayers. The BJP IT cell gets into action, further messing up our understanding of facts. Everyone is confused.

Until now, such canards have resulted in favour of BJP. In people believing the government is doing well. The government is building and securing the nation.

Now, these perceptions have shattered and the claims are called out early. Let us look at what we have on record about the PM visit to the hospital.

The pictures show an ultra-clean hall, beds laid out in lines, wrinkle free sheets, no IV stands, no medicine tables, no slippers even of the soldiers sitting on beds, soldiers with no visible wounds or bandages sitting saavdhan – attention as the PM approaches them.

Netzines dug out pictures of a visit by former Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni when he briefly served the Indian Army as a Lieutenant Colonel. In those pictures Dhoni is seen having tea with Army men and officers in the same hall that the PM visited.

This is revealed by the projector and mike system seen in pictures of both events. The hall certainly does not look like it is a hospital ward.

At best, it could a recreation or seminar room attached to a hospital – repurposed for the PM visit. The wood panelled walls are not important because many buildings, even homes, in Leh which goes sub-zero in winters are wood panelled.

Frankly, how much ever we may shout from rooftops on our computer screens, it does not matter what we think about the Leh hospital pictures. What matters is what does the Army think? What do those senior officers accompanying the PM think?

We do not know that.

Earlier, during Pulwama and Balakot we have seen some of the senior-most officers explaining and supporting the government narrative. Was that correct? Was that a lie or a white lie?

We do not know that.

But we know BJP won the last general election on that narrative. The PM can project as strong an image as he wishes to project, the BJP can win any number of elections, it all does not matter. What matters is what did the airmen, the jawans, the officers think of that narrative?

What did the soldiers think of the Indian Air Force downing an Indian Air Force helicopter by mistake and killing the six Air Force personnel? A clarification made months later by the Chief of Air Force.

What do they think of this narrative of the military hospital in Leh? They know the reality of those pictures.

The soldier who joins the defence services does so for two primary reasons: often to escape difficult socio-economic situations and for the love of the motherland.

They are committed to even laying down their lives to keep up the nation’s reputation. This reputation is built gradually through military parades, inspections, drills, speeches, and exercises.

It is true that some of those activities include exaggeration but it is always a question of what do they achieve? As long as they give the soldiers a sense of a well-oiled system, standing by them, they are content, even emboldened.

In the case of the hospital in Leh, there is a question of genuineness of the propaganda being spun around the soldiers.

No one wants to loose their lives for a lie. The 20 brave soldiers we lost in Galwan Valley are indeed the nation’s loss. Unless we truthfully acknowledge their role, honour them, we are engaging in lies.

The more the lies, the opaquer the truth, the more conflicted the soldiers feel. If the lies are questioned often there may come a day when a soldier might flinch from doing his duty. After all, soldiers are not cannon fodder.

It is most unfortunate that such controversies arise from time to time. The PM, the BJP, the government will do well to remember that and not use the sacrifice of soldiers to build their own image. After all, the government is not the nation.