Great man, brilliant executions, stunning actions and ultimately a tragedy!
By: M S Nazki/ANN DESK
He was a soldier’s General and laway loved to be that….Today suddenly he disappeared and one of the reasons was that God’s of war wanted him to command their army!
-‘A morning that was destined to be a mishap for Bipin and Madhulika Rawat! Smilingly boarded an aircraft, the most trusted one in air but it was never to land. It did but left behind oceans of tears and many crestfallen! All in the aircraft were heroes but they were destined to finally sleep in the lap of the Lady Death together’!
-‘World will travel on but Bipin Rawat has left a legacy behind. A legacy which taught a soldier to be aggressive not with own countrymen but those who from across the borders eye the peace and calm here as far as humanity goes’!
-‘ Be it Pakistan (from where terrorists operate), China ( who thought that 1962 could be repeated , Myanmar (from where North East insurgents they could go on a killing spree) Bipin was authentic in execution . Incidentally Pakistan never raised its serpent head after Uri and Balakote. It cannot! Small grass snakes and Kraits can be trampled even by the Jack boots in any case!
-‘The crash the ill fated Heptr met with should not have happened but it was destined to and that left everyone stunned. It was a headline story and almost all the scrolls were running on news networks but for me only one line mattered, ‘He was a Soldier’s General’! No one ran this line but I will!’
-‘We talk about great Generals of World War-II but I will suggest many in Indian Army and the yoing men who want to Join the best of the best, ‘Indian Armed Forces’ to read a book, ‘India’s Most Fearless: True Stories of Modern Military Heroes By Shiv Aroor, Rahul Singh’.
I will never suggest a book that I have not read or isn’t with me and the simple frightening plot would get your goose pimples rising ’The Army major who led the legendary September 2016 surgical strikes on terror launch pads across the LoC; a soldier who killed 11 terrorists in 10 days; a Navy officer who sailed into a treacherous port to rescue hundreds from an exploding war; a bleeding Air Force pilot who found himself flying a jet that had become a screaming fireball . . . Their own accounts or of those who were with them in their final moments. When you know that it’s a one way traffic the fearless choose the only option and I need not tell you. At that moment for a grave getting into a love affair with death is the most loveable option as it takes you away smilingly as far as braves go’
-‘India’s Most Fearless’ covers fourteen true stories of extraordinary courage and fearlessness, providing a glimpse into the kind of heroism our soldiers display in unthinkably hostile conditions and under grave provocation. (less)’
-‘Rachna Bisht Rawat, The Brave: Param Vir Chakra Stories is another great book. The kid wrote it superbly, ‘ I am struck by a fascinating thought. Soldiers don’t die when bullets pierce their hearts and heads through their olive green shirts and woollen balaclavas. They don’t die when they fall before an enemy onslaught, or even when they get buried in trenches, staining the earth with their warm crimson blood. It is only when we forget their acts of bravery that soldiers die.’
-‘ I can only say, beautifully written kid and more importantly, I’m a proud owner of your book. This particular extract I had to use for a Ghahwali officer who once upon a time was a bouncing kid in a boxing Ring Indian Military Academy! That day he was a winner but today destined to be a loser. But today……I will not say any more!
We were told many stories of valour and perhaps Bipin must have also read them. One of them was, ‘Maj Thapa rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and served till he retired. He continued to attend almost all the Republic Day parades from 1964 to 2004. Sick and undergoing dialysis for kidney failure in Delhi, Lt Col Thapa would slip in and out of consciousness in his last year. Poornima, who was taking care of him, pleaded with him to not attend the parade that year, but he refused gently yet firmly. ‘When I wear my uniform and go for the parade, I represent my soldiers; those men who fought a war with me. I cannot let them down,’ he told her. Though he could hardly stand for long or even stay alert, he put on his uniform, pinned on his PVC, tilted his Gurkha hat at the perfect angle and went for the parade, remembers Poornima. Through sheer willpower, he managed to stand in the jeep till he had saluted the President. After that, he sat down. That would be the last Republic Day parade he would attend. On 5 September 2005, Lt Col Thapa died of kidney failure. He was 77 years old.’― ‘Rachna Bisht, The Brave: Param Vir Chakra Stories’! Obviously die hard and so was the General!
The whole day, I was trying to work on my book ‘The curse’ and I never got a start to the penultimate chapter. I left the script aside, deleted many starts and then finally I did get one but before that my friend and comrade in fighting with words came up with this one and trust me it was a bolt from the blue!
‘Final salute to the topmost Tiger. Thank you for your services to the Nation’.
I knew what happened but never had the strength in my hands to write but had to! MS. Nazki’s words:
‘General Bipin Rawat, India’s first Chief of Defence Staff, died today after a military chopper crashed in Tamil Nadu, killing 13 on board. One man is being treated for severe burns. General Rawat’s wife, travelling with him, was also killed. With deep regret, it has now been ascertained that Gen Bipin Rawat, Mrs Madhulika Rawat and 11 other persons on board have died in the unfortunate accident, the Indian Air Force (IAF) tweeted. The IAF had confirmed a little before 2 pm that an Mi-17 V5 helicopter with General Rawat on board had “met with an accident near Coonoor, Tamil Nadu. The Air Force also said it had ordered an Inquiry into what happened. The helicopter crashed shortly after it took off from the Air Force base in Sulur at 11.45 am, Coimbatore, for Wellington in the Nilgiri Hills. The General was heading to the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington. It was making its descent and would have landed in 10 more minutes when it came down, barely 10 km from a road. Videos showed steaming wreckage scattered on a hillside and rescuers struggling through smoke and fire to locate bodies. Charred bodies were pulled out from under mangled metal and fallen trees. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, briefed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, called a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) at his residence. The Defence Minister and Army Chief MM Naravane visited General Rawat’s home in Delhi long before the official announcement. General Rawat, 63, took charge as India’s first Chief of Defence Staff in January 2019. The position was created to integrate the three services – the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. The Chief of Defence Staff is the Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and has to be the main military adviser to the Defence Minister besides giving impartial advice to the political leadership. A former Army Chief, General Rawat was also appointed the head of the newly-created Department of Military Affairs. The general joined the army as a second lieutenant in 1978 and had four decades of service behind him, having commanded forces in Jammu and Kashmir and along the Line of Actual Control bordering China. Many former army chiefs expressed grief; they described the Mi-17 double engine chopper as a very stable aircraft used for VVIP flights!’
Bipin was Army chief when India carried out airstrikes targeting a Jaish-e-Mohammad terror training centre in Pakistan’s Balakot in February 2019, days after over 40 soldiers were killed in a terror attack in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir. General Rawat also supervised a cross-border counter-insurgency operation in neighbouring Myanmar in 2015. He was Vice Chief of Army Staff when India carried out a surgical strike across the Line of Control in September 2016, in retaliation against a terror strike on an army camp in Uri in which 19 soldiers were killed. He was part of the planning and closely monitored the strike in Delhi. Three months later, he took over as Army Chief. Last year, he had said on the strikes: ‘The surgical strikes post-Uri terror attack and the Balakot airstrikes have delivered a strong message to Pakistan that it no longer enjoys the impunity of pushing terrorists across the Line of Control under the nuclear bogey.’ General Rawat came from a military family with several generations having served in the armed forces. He joined the army as a second lieutenant in 1978 and had four decades of service behind him, having commanded forces in Kashmir and along the Line of Actual Control bordering China. General Rawat was Army Chief from 2017 to 2019 before his elevation as Chief of Defence Staff, a post created in 2019 to improve integration between the army, navy and air force and to enable the military to address challenges like modernisation. He was named Chief of Defence Staff just a day before he was to retire as Army Chief after a three-year term. In his career spanning four decades, General Rawat served in combat areas, and at various functional levels in the Army, according to former chiefs. He had survived a helicopter crash six years ago, in 2015, when he was Lieutenant General. On February 3, 2015, the Cheetah helicopter he was flying in crashed moments after take-off in Nagaland. All on board suffered minor injuries at the time.’
The great man is no more but let me end this one with another extract from the little kid (now grown up) from Gharwal:
‘the rush of adrenaline overcome indecision, fear and nervousness. The paralysing cold seeping into his bones was replaced by the heat of blood coursing through his veins. As the tracer bullet came flying past, lighting the place with a deadly cocktail of shrapnel and fire, the officer stood up, tall and brave, his slight frame coiled like spring, his face a mask. Through the scream of the wind, he roared at those of his men that were fit to fight, ordering them to follow him through the hail of bullets. Like a colossal god with invincible powers he walked into the curtain of shells and bullets. He didn’t look back even once to see who had followed his final command but if he had he would have been a satisfied man. All his Gorkha jawans who could pick themselves up and walk were right behind him, their khukris gripped firmly in their hands’. This is what a soldier is and this is what Bipin was and none could describe it better than Rachna Bisht Rawat! Salute to the Big Tiger who always roared!
