No Price for Valour

No Price for Valour

The unpredictable has happened and the PM’s surprise hop-over to Lahore for a meeting with Nawaz Sharif has created mayhem among th media, their consultants from various backgrounds including those retired from the services and , of course, the political parties. The discussions on TV have already thrown up  questions on the  wisdom , the ethics and the impact of the visit on the “martyred” members of the srmed forces and their families.

I am least bothered about the disagreement and the vituperative cross-talk that will inevitably take place bewtwen BJP and Congress. One can safely ignore it as the unreasoned, impulsive and mindless  reaction of  two sides who have certain political compulsions.

I do, however, wish to comment on the repeated references by mdia persons and some of their advisers about the disregard the PM’s Lahore visit shows for the war veterans and the families of thos who were killed in action in direct and indirect conflicts with Pakistan.

Those who pursue this seeming demand for emotional justice are casting a slur on the ex-servicemen and the those who lost their lives in action by placing a price on their valour and their honour. I do not think a single serviceman would expect this kind of shaded sympathy.

Our defence forces are composed fully of volunteers who have joined up because of thei spirit of adventure to start with fortified by a resolve to do something which directly serves the nation. It is not as if they do not see the possibilityof physical danger and of loss of life. That is the difference between those  brave men and their equally brave families and the likes of us who choose to stay behind nad gloat over our totally misplaced sympathetic observations.

Now, leaving out the peronal aspect of this delicate issue the question of the PM’s Lahore visit impacting the sentiment of the war veterans and those deprived by war or conflict is  totally out of place. The visit, rightly or wrongly as time may prove, is a matter of higher diplomacy between nations and pursued in the belief that this could be a major step in resolving a huge problem dogging two nations. To accept the question raised about sentiment is to say that there should be no attempt at a peaceful resolution of a disagreement and that the two nations should honour the war-dead by continuing to remain in a state of perpetual conflict. Not a single man or woman in military uniform, alive or dead, would wish this demand attributed to them.