FaujiKids, an organisation of Army children, wrote a letter to Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Thursday, asking why the National Military Memorial has remained incomplete 8 years after the government promised it would come up.
The letter was signed by 450 people, including Priya Chetty-Rajagopal and Prasad Bidapa, and they handed over copies of the letter to Deputy CM Dr G Parameshwara and Governor Vajubhai Vala. Thursday also marked Kargil Vijay Divas, which marks the day India took command of the outposts captured by Pakistan in 1999 during the Kargil War.
In their letter, they say the hero stone, or the Veeragallu, is fully carved with the names of over 22,000 martyrs. It needs to be moved 45 kms to the war memorial, but it hasn’t been for 8 years.
You can read the full text of the letter here:
Today is a most important Military Memorial Day. The 19th Anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas, representing the victory of Indian Military at Kargil, the martyrdom of 527 soldiers , falls on 26 July 2018.
We are a group of deeply hurt citizens the #FaujiKids, who are the children of military personnel, requesting you to step in to protect the martyrs from the rank indifference of our beloved state. An online petition from the Fauji Kids #InMyFathersName has already been set up. We are also present on Twitter and Facebook.
Hardly 200 meters across from is you the National Military Memorial (NMM), mooted to be the first of its kind to honour martyrs, post-Independence. Yet, the same memorial to our martyrs, started with such pomp and promise by our state government, is now nothing but an insult. The 7½- acre space is in a state of cruel neglect. It is lying incomplete. It has not been inaugurated since the last 8 years simply because it has not been finished.
Is this is a shining example of bureaucratic indifference?
However this is the Indian Military, our Fauj. Surprisingly, everything required for the Memorial, except one critical milestone, has been acquired. The Veeragallu or hero stone which weighs over 500 tonnes and is 75 feet tall, inscribed with the names of 22,600 martyrs, lies hardly 45 kms away at Devanahalli, fully sculpted and complete, but not yet shifted. The Memorial can ONLY be inaugurated after the Veeragallu is installed
One of the tallest flags in the country, granite slabs inscribed with martyrs’ names, the motivation hall, the statue of the Unknown Soldier, as well as defence exhibits graciously provided at their own cost by the military, are all ready, too. Yet because of this one pending crucial item, the National Military Memorial lies incomplete, covered with cobwebs and ignored by successive state governments for the last eight years.
Is it indeed possible that this journey of 45 kms, already contracted and tendered by an Ahmedabad contractor, Naspro Transport at over Rs 5 crores, many years ago, will result in the NMM remaining in the forlorn state it is now? Is it conceivable that the entire state government machinery has been so negligent or indifferent that the very stone they conceived to honour our martyrs has not moved one inch in the last eight years?
Recently, a similar large-sized statue of Hanuman moved within three months from Kolar to Kaikondrahalli Lake, with all permissions in place. In three months! Is there something that we are overlooking where the Military Memorial is concerned? Are the priorities concerning the Memorial so low? The government has repeatedly made statements on postponements and excuses but there has been no visibility on the project whatsoever. The military and indeed, its martyrs who have moved mountains to protect their beloved country, watch mortified as the state will not move this stone by even one inch.
Sir, we entreat you to please use your good offices to establish the reason for the indifference and delay, as also insist that this project is completed before 15 August 2018, our Independence Day. They must give us a promise on Vijay Diwas. We have been waiting for a long time.
We, the children of military parents who are proud of our flag, the sacrifice of our martyrs and the security that our military parents have given to our motherland, request you to do the right thing in their memory and ensure that bureaucratic indifference will not stand in the way of completing a promise that was made in the memory of India`s martyrs . No military authority or martyr`s family has asked our state for a National Military Memorial; yet after announcing one, it is indeed mortifying to see the same martyrs being dismissed so callously.
We thank you in advance and look forward to your kind intervention.