Editor's Note
This third article of Kargil War 99 Silver Jubilee coverage has a comparison drawn by Col Shivaji Ranjan Ghosh between the historically 🌎 world famous ' Charge of the Light Brigade ' and the Kargil War, 1999 ,charge of Indian Army's elite young soldiers to regain lost territory in high and rugged mountainous terrain of Kargil sector from the deeply entrenched Pakistan Army.
The second part is a well summed up and aptly worded response from Col RS Khandpur stating how the Kargil War 99 anniversary needs to be celebrated every year!
SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE KARGIL WAR ,1999 & THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
Col Shivaji Ranjan Ghosh
Lord Tennyson’s well-known poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” may be familiar to many of us, but have we noticed the uncanny similarity between the events described in the poem and what happened in Kargil? I am reproducing some of the stanzas here to highlight these similarities:
The first stanza exactly describes the way our brave young men were pushed into battle, and the unwavering courage they showed as they fought their way from one feature to another:
"Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!’ he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred."
The second stanza is the most telling of all. It describes the unflinching loyalty and adherence to orders, even though someone had blundered at the higher levels. They, the troops on the ground, willingly paid for these blunders with their lives and their limbs. Wasn’t Kargil exactly the same?
"‘Forward, the Light Brigade!’
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blunder’d:
Their’s not to make reply,
Their’s not to reason why,
Their’s but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred."
The last stanza is a call to all of us, the citizens of this country, to remember the sacrifices of a handful of young men who fought tremendous odds to restore the honour and dignity of the nation. They died so that we can live. Let their sacrifice not go in vain.
"They that had fought so well
Came thro’ the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade ?
O’ the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder’d.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
THE KARGIL WAR, 1999 - APTLY SUMMED UP! - Col RS Khandpur
To my mind, the Silver Jubilee of the Kargil War must be observed as a day of atonement and repentance. The young officers of 1999 who are now Brigadiers and above must never forget their coursemates and peers who sacrificed their lives and limbs to uphold their unit's izzat and did so for naam, namak, nishaan and resolve never to repeat the mistakes of the senior commanders whose sins of omission and commission forced the situation upon the Nation.
And for the younger lot, they should reflect upon the actions of the young officers who were deployed in the sector,a year or two earlier as had these youngsters been doing their duties diligently, the intrusions would have come to light much earlier.
As a CO in the Poonch sector during op Vijay,I was witness to the dilemma and pain of my contemporary COs who had to conduct the operations knowing full well that the officers and men under their command were being tasked to do the seemingly impossible.
So every anniversary of the Kargil War is a painful reminder of dereliction of duty by the senior hierarchy and the indomitable courage of the young officers who pulled the chestnuts out of the fire, so to say.
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