The University Grants Commission (UGC) recently issued an advisory to all universities operating under it to celebrate September 29 as ‘Surgical Strike Day’. The move is clearly motivated by political interests and has nothing to do with the UGC’s mandate. The initiative, if anything, is a puerile way of honouring a martial success that has not yet been proven as successful. Even those who have seen the leaked video are not convinced of its veracity. It seems to be an effort at impressing feeble young minds. This might have been thought out to create a wrong notion that events such as the 1971 Bangladesh war or, on a smaller scale, the Maldives operation of the late 1980s were of no consequence. The surgical strike obviously achieved nothing. In fact, after the so-called claims of the strike, attacks increased on Indian military installations. All armies facing hostile neighbors, across the world, take up such small and limited operations as standard operating procedure and therefore it was not truly any big military effort. It may not be wrong to mention, a country like Israel is a prime example of such small across-the-border skirmishes on a regular basis. Giving such a limited encounter popularity is one thing but trying to make it out as a momentous achievement is another. The surgical strike undoubtedly was but one of the many such actions India ought to have carried out in the past. These efforts should have been regular military acts. Sadly for India, our military top brass desperately lacks the vital killer instinct needed to hold the enemies across the border at bay. By giving a special place for a minor military action that has taken place under the current political set up and by giving it much publicity, are the sacrifices of the soldiers dying regularly as individual combatants at the border not being denigrated? The country is in need of examples more than memorials.
The common soldier shedding blood on the borders is as valuable as the officer commanding him. It is true that there are not many stories of valour and patriotism that the country could share. India, historically, has never seen wars that have reached the homes of the common citizen. Due to natural boundaries, marauders could never swamp this subcontinent as they did elsewhere. Even those who did manage to cross the northern mountains were totally physically depleted by the time they reached the plains. India, as a nation, can never compare itself with a Germany, China, Korea, Japan or even a Syria or Afghanistan. Our people have never experienced real war at their doorsteps. That gives us a smug feel about our security. Coming to think of it, the Indian Army, which is totally a voluntarily enlisted force, could not have got soldiers to join had the country not had such a large chunk of impoverished population eager for any kind of income. A race that has never suffered together can never have patriotic feelings. Patriotism is not born out of love for the soil alone. Love for the country manifests in love for fellow citizens. Monuments and infrastructure come in much later.
Celebrating 29 September as Surgical Strike Day can at best be labeled hilarious. It’s a childish effort to glorify when there actually is nothing to gloat about. Some of us may recollect a former Union Human Resource Minister asking that a battle tank be placed at the entrance to the Jawaharlal Nehru University to inculcate ‘nationalism’ in the minds of that rebellious and inconvenient center of learning. In many cities of India where there are cantonments, coming across an old dilapidated battle tank or a field gun of yesteryear sitting on a raised platform at the entrance is common sight. Unfortunately, those kinds of memorabilia never seem to bring forth tears of love for the country to any pair of eyes.
After failed attempts at enforcing patriotism, the government appears to be using proxies such as the UGC to achieve that end. Earlier, the ministry of human resource development had run afoul of state governments such as that in Bengal after it issued a directive to schools under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan to celebrate Independence Day with greater fervour and with more activities. Even earlier, it had drawn flak over installation of huge flagpoles on university campuses. The country is not bereft of days commemorating various events.
The UGC has by issuing the advisory only paved the way to a controversy. It has failed in viewing the real issues facing higher education. Political parties vying for support within the students’ community is a worldwide phenomenon. No one can object to that in any democracy.
However, messing with students by introducing cheap political gimmicks can only help produce more illiterate citizens who would further burden the nation.