Nagpur: Lt Col Prasad Purohit, who was named in the Malegaon blast case, said when his unit as moving to a forward base from Ahmedabad during the Kargil war, a Muslim man with two kids stopped them with an autorickshaw full of roses, and handed one to each soldier. The kids were the man's son and his friend.
This shows that when the Indian Army goes to war, the entire country stands behind it, he said.
Purohit was addressing an event by Prahar Samaj Jagruti Sanstha, an NGO which trains youngsters in military values and helps them join the armed forces, to mark the 77th Army Day. Purohit, who is based in Mumbai, continues to serve in the Army as his case remains sub-judice, he told TOI on the function's sidelines.
Purohit told the children, "Even Mahatma Gandhi said non-violence presupposes the ability to strike. The weak cannot talk of peace." He added a reference to the term ‘Shastropajeevan' coined by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, explaining, "Though all cannot join the armed forces, their orientation towards life should be like that of a soldier."
Narrating other incidents from his Army postings, Purohit said that as an young officer, he had taken advantage of the wind direction, dry stalks, and the religious taboo of the enemy against being burnt to death, to free a patch of land occupied by the enemy for 20 years near the Line of Control (LOC).
"We drove away the Pakistani troops by simply burning down the dry stalks. What could not happen in 20 years, was done in mere two hours," he said. The new plastic sandbags purchased by the Pakistani troops, to replace jute bags, only added to the advantage, he said.
Saying that once even Afghanistan was part of India, Purohit remarked that the power of the sword has come down, and the political leaders of the nation have lost a piece of land.
He exhorted youngsters to join the Army, adding the Indian armed forces are taught to wield weapons with utmost responsibility. "The naming of weapons too depict a sense of power with responsibility. The missiles are named Akash and Prithvi — elements of nature. Pinaka is a weapon wielded by Lord Shiva. Look at the Pakistanis; they have names like Babur, Ghori, and Timur for their weapons. They depict atrocities meted out on the people. For the Indian Army, wielding weapons does not mean using it for harm."
He said the Indian Army fights not only to protect the geographical boundaries but also the ‘Indianness' of the country.