Marshal Arjan Singh, the only Air Force officer to be promoted to five-star rank, and the hero who successfully led a young IAF during the 1965 Info-Pak war, died of a cardiac arrest on September 16.
Mr. Modi’s marked his 67th birthday on September 17, with grandiose celebrations across the country.
Sadly, there was no declaration of national mourning on the legendary war hero’s demise, even when the protocol demands this. Majority of the people took to social media platforms to express their dissent over the same and compared the two glaring situations.
On the one hand, grand celebrations took place across the country with BJP ministers monitoring the merrymaking, whereas on the other hand, no national mourning was declared on late Arjan Singh’s demise.
In Uttar Pradesh, a large number of primary schools were open on Modi’s birthday, despite it being a Sunday, under the garb of a pulse polio campaign. The celebrations took place with great fervour, with children being made to participate in a cleanliness drive and taking the `swachhata’ pledge.
They were also ‘enlightened’ about our honourable Prime Minister’s life.
Isn’t it ironical? Various institutions, be it schools, colleges, government offices etc are kept closed when an eminent personality passes away. But, the day of 17th September was used for a completely opposite objective.
Was it moral and appropriate for the BJP to celebrate PM Modi’s birthday at a time when one of the greatest war veterans our country has produced passed away?
Marshal Arjan Singh’s last rites were performed on September 18, a day after our Prime Minister’s birthday. A celebration was kept ahead of the mourning of somebody who lived his life serving the nation and leading it successfully in a crucial war.
If this, what the BJP terms at being nationalist, then I, in fact all of us, would be proud to call ourselves anti-nationalist.
The BJP has brought shame and disrepute not just to the memory of that great patriot but to the nation as a whole!