TWO LIVES EXTRAORDINARY

The morning of 23rd Nov broke with heartrending news of casualties suffered by Indian Army in an ongoing operation in Rajauri in Jammu and Kashmir. This Counter Insurgency (CI) warfare has been taking its toll since last about 24 years now. We have been losing smart, bright youngsters who are full of josh, leading from the front, bashing on regardless of the outcome and it is their courageous leadership which has saved us the day so far. Kashmir is with us and turning a new leaf is all due to these highly avoidable sacrifices. This encounter was a little different, apart from the fact it extracted a very heavy price in terms of loss of lives,  Capt Shubham Gupta and Capt MV Pranjal,  both followed the Chetwodian motto to the word,  putting the safety of others before their own. The two officers who made the supreme sacrifice in order to prevent collateral damage to the civilians were both trained by our Alma Mater the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering Mhow in the Cadets Training Wing (CTW). Both of them chose to join the Corps of Signals being graduate engineers, however Capt Shubham Gupta decided to switch to the Special Forces later. 

Although Shubham hailed from Agra and Pranjal from Manglore in Karnataka, both of them were first generation faujis, as their parents were from a civil background. Mr Gupta, Shubham's father is a legal luminary and Mr Pranjal is a retired MD from MRPL, Manglore Refinery Petrochemicals Ltd. Two totally diverse backgrounds, one from the North, the other from the South, different languages and customs but what bound them together was their zeal to lead a life  extraordinary, not a mundane corporate life which both of them could highly have opted for. In the Counter Insurgency environment joint operations are conducted quite often, due to the highly inhospitable terrain, kind of operations, the threat envisaged etc. Rashtriya Rifles units are specialist CI units and Special Forces are elite units who are always at the forefront providing that  x factor which makes them stand apart.

A cursory glance at their profile and what stands out are that despite being the normal guys that they appeared, theirs was a steely resolve and their endeavours were extraordinary. Pranjal was second in the order of merit when he joined CTW and excelled in sports and bagged the “Gentleman of the Course” trophy during the YOs.  Shubham displayed a ‘joie de vivre’, ran cross country and sang well, in fact there is a clip available on social media of him crooning Mehdi Hassan’s famous ghazal, “Mujhe tum nazar se gira to rahe ho, mujhe tum kabhi bhi  bhula na sakoge”, by his deeds he has ensured that a grateful nation can never forget him. 

Why was their sacrifice so glorious; young officers of the Indian Army have excelled in all kinds of operations always, but theirs was different, they were gentlemen first even in such an operation, Pranjal’s prime concern was saving the lives of the civilians who were being targeted by the militants. Obviously aware that this would put him at great risk but he chose the “harder right” against the easier option and thereby saved lives at the cost of his own. We hear the words collateral damage very often and accept them as sad but integral part of such operations conducted in close vicinity of civil population, but these outstanding leaders of men chose not to accept any such casualties, protecting them in the highest traditions of Indian Army.

In the Indian Army we are known to cover the backs of our comrades and unlike our adversaries never ever leave our casualties behind. When Shubham saw Maj Mehra  and his buddy getting injured he in a daredevil act evacuated them and engaged the terrorists who were trying to get away.  We salute the brave hearts, ironically the media has latched on to the martyrdom aspect but we in the Indian Army do not address our heroes as martyrs, as they do not fight for any religious cause, they have made the supreme sacrifice protecting our country. Let us honour their legacy, put our narrow short sighted interests aside and work together to rid our nation of this menace of terrorism and make our nation great again.