As many as 1,000 earthen lamps were lit to commemorate the martyrdom day of Kargil War hero and Param Vir Chakra recipient Captain Vikram Batra, at the Sector 17 Plaza here today.
The city unit of BJP Yuva Morcha organised the programme to pay tribute to the martyr. Morcha in-charge Ramesh Sahor urged the youth to draw inspiration from such martyrs and take active part in nation-building.
Vikram dekh raha hai tu? Tu ne yahi pahadi jeeti thi”. COL RAJESH ADHAU @rukwadsokaum flew straight from Congo to Drass on the balidan diwas of his dearest friend,compatriot & brother in arms CAPT VIKRAM BATRA,13JAKRIF,PVC.He climbed Pt.5140 today and remembered a his teammates
BSF troops bag 38 gold medals at World Police and Fire Games in US
The haul of gold medals included 14 in swimming, 12 in athletics, four each in archery and wrestling, three in boxing and one in taekwondo
A total of 21 BSF personnel had participated in six disciplines at the WP&FG. Photo: BSF
Border Security Force (BSF) personnel bagged 38 gold medals in the World Police and Fire Games – 2025 (WP&FG) held at Alabama in the US, with the force’s total medal tally being 73 including 21 silver and 14 bronze.
A total of 21 BSF personnel had participated in six disciplines at the WP&FG. About 8,500 competitors from 70 countries participated in the games this year. Personnel from other paramilitary and state police forces in India also participated in the games.
The haul of gold medals included 14 in swimming, 12 in athletics, four each in archery and wrestling, three in boxing and one in taekwondo. Silver medals included six each in swimming and athletics, two in archery and one in taekwondo, while the bronze included 11 in swimming and three in athletics.
Director General BSF, Daljit Singh Chaudhary, lauded the outstanding performance of BSF athletes and also congratulated the coaches and support staff for their relentless efforts and dedication for this success.
The WPFG is an Olympic-style competition with thousands of athletes representing first responders from different countries across the world. This includes law enforcement, firefighters, officers from corrections, probation, border protection, immigration and customs. The games are held biennially and typically have about 60 sports.
The games are governed by the California Police Athletic Federation (CPAF), the host city, which this year was Birmingham, and the WP&FG Board of Directors. The first edition of the WP&FG was held in 1985 in San Jose, California. Besides the US, the event has also been conducted in different countries.
The next edition of WP&FG is scheduled to be held at Perth in 2027, while India will host the event in 2017 in Gujarat.
Our constitutional ethos is socialist, secular for sure
THE process of conceptualising a Constitution for a yet-to-be-born republic commenced on December 9, 1946. It culminated on November 26, 1949, with the adoption of the Constitution.
The exemplary founding fathers of modern India did not start, in 1947, to raze and raise buildings to announce the dawn of a new freedom and a new covenant of equality, fraternity and justice for all Indians. They chose to sit down, almost three hundred of the very best of them, for almost three long years, to debate and dissect and carve the most important book of contemporary India, the Constitution.
Democrats create festivals of ideas, crusades of justice and equity, carnivals of creativity, in which all may participate, on some kind of equal footing. It is only autocrats and fascists, monarchs and megalomaniacs, not necessarily in that order, who seek statues and monuments to awe their subjects.
The Constitution imbibed some of the fundamental impulses unique to India’s peaceful and non-violent mass mobilisation to overthrow the yoke of British imperialism. The trials and tribulations that seared humanity as a consequence of two world wars, leaving over 100 million people dead, the first destructive use of the potential of the atom, the failure of the League of Nations and the desire to see the United Nations succeed were all facts and yearnings that found a voice in various Articles of the Indian constitutional project.
Though the initial Preamble to the Constitution only stated that India would be a “sovereign democratic republic”, the statute’s fundamental design was both socialist and secular in character from day one itself.
A bare reading of Articles 25 to 28 that deal with the Right to Freedom of Religion and Articles 29-30 that address the question of Cultural and Educational Rights makes this fact abundantly clear.
Article 25(2)(A) specifically refers to secular activity, albeit in the context of the right of the State to ring-fence certain activities that are “associated with religious practice”.
Similarly, Articles 14 to 18 pertaining to the fundamental right to equality are both secular and socialist in character. The overwhelming bulk of the Directive Principles of State Policy from Article 36 to 51, including and not limited to Article 39 — ‘Certain principles of Policy to be followed by the State’ — are intrinsically socialist in character.
Article 39(b) specifically ordains “that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good”. What, pray, can be more socialistic than this?
It is in this context that the Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act was gazetted on December 18, 1976. The statement of objects and reasons stated: “It was, therefore, considered necessary to amend the Constitution to spell out expressly the high ideals of socialism, secularism and the integrity of the nation, to make the Directive Principles more comprehensive…”
Section 2 of the Act postulated that in the Preamble, “for the words ‘sovereign democratic republic’, the words ‘sovereign socialist secular democratic republic’ shall be substituted; and for the words ‘unity of the nation’, the words ‘unity and integrity of the nation’ shall be substituted.”
Secularism was defined not as irreligion or atheism, but as rejection of theocratic governance while maintaining “equality and respect for all religions” — values accepted by India’s pluralist civilisation going back millennia.
Ideally, it should have been the strict separation of the church and the State, as can be extrapolated from the writings of Jawaharlal Nehru. The distilled principles of Nehruvian secularism are three-fold separation of religion from political, economic and governance paradigms; religion being treated as purely a personal matter; and neutrality of the State from ‘ALL’ religions.
During the parliamentary debate on the 42nd Amendment, the late Vasant Sathe explained what socialism meant: “The elementary principle of democratic socialism is economic democracy… it must lead to a society free from exploitation, that the few in the society should not have the right to exploit the many.”
This definitional principle drew inspiration from the 1931 Karachi Resolution’s commitment to the organisation of economic life conforming to the principle of justice.
It was, therefore, surprising that the Vice-President endorsed the assertion, which was not properly thought through, that ‘socialism’ and ‘secularism’ be deleted from the Preamble. He said, “The Preamble is not changeable… but this Preamble for Bharat was changed by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976, adding ‘socialist’, ‘secular’ and ‘integrity’.”
It is a perplexing position for a senior constitutional functionary to take, given the fact that on November 25, 2024, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court headed by the Chief Justice of India had dismissed a writ petition opposing the addition of ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ to the Preamble.
The court held, “A number of decisions of this court, including the Constitution Bench judgments in Kesavananda Bharati vs State of Kerala and SR Bommai vs Union of India, have observed that secularism is a basic feature of the Constitution.” In RC Poudyal vs Union of India, the court elucidated that although the term ‘secular’ was not present in the Constitution before its insertion in the Preamble by the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976, secularism essentially represents the nation’s commitment to treat persons of all faiths equally and without discrimination.
In M Ismail Faruqui vs Union of India, the court elaborated that the expression ‘secularism’ in the Indian context was a term of the widest possible scope. “The State maintains no religion of its own, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience along with the right to freely profess, practise and propagate their chosen religion, and all citizens, regardless of their religious beliefs, enjoy equal freedoms and rights… In essence, the concept of secularism represents one of the facets of the right to equality, intricately woven into the basic fabric that depicts the constitutional scheme’s pattern,’ the court said.
The apex court stated that ‘socialism’ in the Indian context should not be interpreted as restricting the economic policies of an elected government. “Neither the Constitution nor the Preamble mandates a specific economic policy or structure, whether left or right. Rather, ‘socialist’ denotes the State’s commitment to be a welfare State and its commitment to ensuring equality of opportunity,” the SC Bench added.
Let me conclude with a dare. When the government provides free foodgrains to 81.35 crore people, is it socialist or capitalist in its disposition? When Indian MPs go abroad and unanimously sing paeans to India’s multiculturalism, stating that we have the largest minorities in the world, are we then being secular or theocratic in character? People who make such demands need to think them through.
Manish Tewari is Lok Sabha MP from Chandigarh and former I&B minister.
Why are so many cases relating to disability pension flooding the courts
On July 1, a division Bench of the Delhi High Court dismissed around 300 appeals filed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) against judgements granting disability benefits to Armed Forces personnel.
Referring to several past verdicts by the Supreme Court and different High Courts, the Bench observed that grant of disability benefits “is not an act of generosity, but a rightful and just acknowledgement of the sacrifices in the form of disabilities/disorders suffered during the course of their military service and a measure that upholds the State’s responsibility towards its soldiers, who have served the nation with courage and devotion.”
In the past few months, hundreds of such cases filed by the ministry and the army have already been dismissed by the High Courts all across the country, with the Delhi High Court even warning the ministry of costs in case it continues with such litigation. The Supreme Court has already held that disability that was not detected or recorded at the time of joining the Armed Forces is deemed to be attributable to military service unless proved otherwise by the competent authority.
The courts have reiterated that it is of paramount importance that medical boards record clear and cogent reasons in support of their medical opinions. Such reasoning would not only enhance transparency but also assist the competent authority in adjudicating these matters with greater precision, ensuring that no prejudice is caused to either party.
Cryptic and unreasoned assessment defeats the purpose behind the constitution of the medical boards and also leaves the Courts without adequate material to effectively adjudicate the matter before them.
The root cause of litigation lies in disorders already covered by rules and even judgements not being attributed to military service due to administrative oversight or fault on part of the medical boards or pension sanctioning authorities. Thus begins a long drawn litigation process.
The current cycle of controversy over litigation involving disability benefits goes back over a decade. Here is a timeline of how the situation unfolded over the years:
April 2014: BJP Manifesto talks about minimizing appeals filed by the government against disabled soldiers and veterans. Prime Minister Modi also deprecates filing of appeals against disabled soldiers by the government in one of his election speeches.
Dec 2014: About 900 appeals filed by the previous UPA government in the Supreme Court (SC) against verdicts by the Armed Forces Tribunal and the High Courts (HC) that were in favour of disabled soldiers dismissed on a single day by the top court.
July 2015: The Prime Minister takes a grim view of MoD challenging verdicts favouring disabled soldiers, widows and old pensioners and tasks the then defence minister, Manohar Parrikar to take steps for withdrawing such litigation. Parrikar constitutes a high-level committee of experts directly under him to objectively recommend measures for reducing litigation.
Nov 2015: Parrikar comes down heavily on what experts had termed as “ego-fuelled” litigation initiated by the MoD and defence services against their own employees and former employees. The committee under him recommends withdrawal of appeals in all matters settled by the SC and HCs, especially those involving disabled soldiers. The Committee also points out the intrinsic link between stress and strain of military service resulting in aggravation of disabilities amongst soldiers and also its effect on mental health and asks the MoD and defence officers to be more sensitive. Parrikar’s committee also notes the effect of stress on the lifespan of troops as compared to civilian counterparts. It notes the effect of frequent transfers and unsettled life, regimented living, reduced freedoms, inability to take care of domestic commitments, 24 hours deemed duty, living away from family, etc, on health and medical conditions such as heart diseases and psychiatric issues.
April 2018: The Supreme Court slams the Ministry of Defence in challenging matters already covered and settled. In a detailed judgment, the court calls out the negative approach of the ministry in burdening the courts and wasting public money on frivolous litigation. A fine of Rs one lakh is also imposed on the MoD.
Sept 2018: The then defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, issues orders to MoD not to challenge pensionary matters already settled in favour of disabled soldiers by judgments of the SC and HCs and asks officers to give up their “prestige based” litigation.
February 2019: A high-level committee in the Ministry of Law also takes note of filing of appeals by MoD against disabled soldiers and directs withdrawal of such appeals to avoid adverse orders. Sitharaman immediately directs the withdrawal of the last such pending appeals and posts the decision on social media.
March 2022: The SC expresses its “displeasure” and again passes strictures against the MoD for filing appeals in settled matters of disability pension.
Early 2023: Faced with non-implementation of its orders for years together, the Armed Forces Tribunal issues a series of strong orders, including arrest warrants, against officers of the Defence Accounts Department.
July-August 2023: The Defence Accounts Department takes up the matter with the Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare in the MoD and after seeking opinion of the Judge Advocate General’s Department and senior law officers, it is decided to again start challenging verdicts of the AFT in the HCs and SC rather than implementing existing verdicts. Some officials in the know of events claim that while seeking legal opinion, the previous decisions of the defence minister and the law ministry were not disclosed to the senior law officers of the government.
September 2023: MoD modifies the pension rules by introducing the ‘Entitlement Rules for Casualty Pension and Disability Compensation Award to Armed Forces Personnel, 2023’, which drastically redefines the eligibility criteria for disability pensions and narrows the scope of eligibility by removing certain disabilities and their onset causes.
October 2023: The MoD, in total reversal of policy decisions taken by defence ministers in the past, directs the Army to file writ petitions challenging all orders passed in favour of disabled soldiers by Armed Forces Tribunals. Legal experts say that these are the matters on the same subjects wherein it was directed that no further appeals would be filed and pending appeals were withdrawn.
Recently, the Ministry of Defence, in response to a question, submitted in Parliament that in accordance with the existing rules of business, all judgements that are “against government policy” are contested till the highest judicial forum.
Thousands of cases are now being filed by government lawyers against disabled soldiers all across the country, and this includes matters already settled by the Supreme Court and in which the courts have made strong remarks against the defence ministry and also imposed heavy costs on it.
COMMENTS BY Lt Gen JASBIR SINGH DHALIWAL ,PVSM,AVSM,VSM
An excellent exposition on Gratitude, explained in subtle and simple ways. She talks about our wants, thoughts and vibrations which can be channelled by positive thinking and reinforcement into reality. She also talks about questioning or reasoning of every want generated in our minds, by doing so we will be able to filter the genuine ones and then further strive to fulfill those desires. Karma in our own way of life and also explained by her plays a vital role in our lives. What goes around, comes around ! All good & bad deeds will get accounted for in this life time only. Very enlightening thoughts which are based on our ancient religious texts, very relevant in today’s fast moving life styles which have been elaborated in simple and in layman’s language. Worth listening to!!
1965 WAR HERO : WHO SAVED AMRITSAR : LT GEN HARBAKSH SINGH,6.5 FT HEIGHT
