TEZPUR: Amidst reports of China building up military infrastructures along the McMahan Line, Subedar Joginder Singh, a recipient of the country’s highest military honour Param Vir Chakra, was resurrected, virtually, on Sunday.
Indian Army authorities arranged a special screening of the 2018 movie “Subedar Joginder Singh” at the Lance Naik Albert Ekka Auditorium at 4 Corps headquarters in Tezpur. The 4 Corps –along with Nagaland’s Dimapur-based 3 Corps – looks after security along the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh.
The basic objective behind the movie’s screening, viewed among others by the martyr’s youngest daughter Kulwant Kaur and coinciding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, was to inspire Army soldiers deployed on the country’s eastern front. The motivational film portrays the gallantry of Subedar Singh in India’s war with China in 1962.
“The reason we arranged the film’s special screening in Tezpur is that Subedar Singh attained martyrdom in our area. By screening it here, we also sought to inspire our young soldiers to be as valourous as Subedar Singh,” the 4 Corps Commander, Lt Gen GS Sangha, told reporters.
No soldiers ever received the Param Vir Chakra while serving in the north-eastern sector.
An emotional Kulwant, Subedar Singh’s daughter, said she was happy that people had given a thought to make the movie. “I am happy that people remembered the martyrs and are commemorating their memories,” she said. She was aged eight months when her father was martyred.
Apart from her, a few Army officers from different parts of India had come to watch the movie.
Subedar Singh, who also fought in the Second World War on the Burma front and the India-Pakistan War of 1947-1948, had started his career in the British Indian Army in 1936. During the war with China, he was commanding a platoon at the Bum La Pass. Despite being heavily outnumbered, he led his troops in the face of the enemy and defended his post until he was wounded. He was held captive as a prisoner of war and later, he died in the captivity of the enemies.