Nerve Endings Firing Away

Major General Atma Singh, now retired who won the Vir Chakra for gallantry for his role in the Laungewala battle fought in 1971 now claims that no ground battle was ever fought there and the army merely rehearsed it on a sand model after the ceasefire to cover up the incompetence of military commanders [source]. If you remember, this battle was immortalized in J.P.Dutta’s epic movie, Border. By Singh’s account, it was the Air Force that won the battle and not the army. Given that history is often written by the victors, this must count as those intra-military squabbles regarding the role of their respective department except it is one of Army’s own who is disputing their role.

I doubt given the publicity surrounding this particular battle especially after the release of the movie, Border where the Indian soldiers were drastically overmatched and yet emerged victorious, the story will ever be revised. It is just too much of comeback tale to deny although I wonder why this allegation has surfaced after nearly 37 years; recreating the battle scene cannot be the only reason. The allegations may or may not be true but we probably will never hear of it. The media is busy in promoting feel-good stories and tales of miracle so we cannot expect them to dig deeper and make story of bravado and valor into a mere story of ‘we held them back until the Air Force kicked their ass’.

But such stories of fudging military history is not new. If you have seen Clint Eastwood’s Flags of our Fathers, you’ll know how a simple and insignificant act of raising a flag [at Iwo Jima] was transformed into a massive publicity campaign to drum up support for a war thanks to a beautifully captured photograph. And in more recent times, the story of Jessica Lynch now proven to be fictional is only too well known. I’m sure every battle and war in history has its elements of fiction to it. The battle for truth may continue on in Wikipedia land.