who are the 'martyrs' ?

A democracy, by definition, is liberal in thought and deed. And India is among the very few former colonies that steadfastly and exuberantly has been a vibrant one for the last 70 years or so. Naturally, ’conferring’ martyrdom comes easy, more so, when it is liberally buttered with nationalistic fervour for political dividends. Soldiers killed in cross border fire; or terrorist attacks on army camps; or Siachen landslides; or OROP suicide; or in Naxal attacks; or a cop garroted by undertrials in Bhopal jail, all such tragic deaths, depending on newsiness or capacity for milking partisan gains, are opportunities for thrusting martyrdom on the slain.

Soldiering or copping is an occupation like any other, only one with heightened life risks. In peace times, the risk abates. Still, in the performance of duties some, inevitably, do get killed by inimical forces. its an occupational hazard .We feel the loss and grieve with the victim families.

Does their death in harness automatically confer martyrdom, merely because the victim is a soldier or a cop? I may sound irreverent or profane or in the current mood of the nation, seditious. But do ponder. What should one say of the truck driver who carries a daily life risk on road, and many times more of them die every day in road accidents. Is he less exalted or beholden of an inferior genre of life risk ? Whether a cop or a soldier or a truck driver, all voluntarily choose the risk-reward inhering their jobs.

So, do we call them martyrs or reserve the term for one put to death for not renouncing his faith, or one persecuted for adhering to a principle or a cause. The Dictionary unequivocally says, the latter. Yet, across the political spectrum one sees a competitive race to glorify soldiers, cops losing their lives in course of discharge of duties as martyr. Like never before.

In earlier times, we paid our respects and homage, solaced the mourning families and endeavoured to provide good lives to the families they left behind. Things have changed indeed. Suddenly slain security men have become handles for political posturing and whipping up jingoistic hysteria. The nation has fallen into the trap of worshipping form and ignoring content. That an ex-service man had to commit suicide, for whatever reasons, setting aside the issue of his mental state deemed questionable by V K Singh, is proof enough.

Let us not debase true martyrs by a politically expedient reading of martyrdom. The rightful claimants are the few who lay down their lives for noble causes. Slain security personnel deserve our heartfelt homage, empathy and a befitting financial package, may be even handholding, to enable their families to walk through life with their head held high. But martyrdom, only with due circumspection.