Sad day, man who fought for India dies due to demonetisation
The life of a soldier is valued by Indians, especially proud nationalists, only when they have to make an asinine comparison or an empty rhetoric. Post Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much criticised demonetisation drive, where he decommissioned the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, comparing a common man’s woes to that of a soldier, to justify the suffering of those standing for hours at an ATM or a bank queue for a rationed amount of their own money, became the trend.
The argument suggests that if soldiers can stand at the border, day and night, to protect our nation, why can’t the common man? It’s a stupid argument in general, without including the fact that Indian nationalists use soldiers as a straw man for a whole lot of arguments. More than that, it’s insensitive to both parties: the man in the ATM queue because it downgrades his struggles and problems without any consideration; the soldier because you meaninglessly use his name to push your own agenda.
In any case, claiming to respect soldiers and actually respecting them are two different things altogether. OROP has been a clear example of that. But what happens when the soldier and the common man turn out to be the same people?
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| What happens when the soldier and the common man turn out to be the same people? [Photo: Indiatoday.in] |
In a tragic event, CRPF personnel and war hero (he took five bullets to his chest in a terror attack in Kashmir's Baramulla in 1990) Rakesh Chand shot himself to death on Saturday morning after allegedly failing to withdraw cash from the bank even after repeated visits.
The 54-year-old retired head constable tried in vain, to withdraw money from SBI's Tajganj branch day after day, to pay for some urgent medical need. Chand had developed a heart condition from the bullets that wounded him and thus need money for the treatment. Failing to do so, Chand shot himself with his licensed handgun.
"My father urgently needed money for the treatment of his heart condition. He used to receive a monthly pension of Rs 15,000, of which he needed Rs 6,000-7,000 for doctor's visit and medicines," Sushil Kumar, Chand's son, told the Times of India.
Chand’s story, tragic as it is, is not something unique. The cash vacuum created by the demonetisation drive has led to almost 80 deaths so far directly or indirectly. Several people have killed themselves after getting frustrated with the gag put on their own money. This is the kind of suffering that has been systemically negated by the prime minister and his cadre.
Modi might ignorantly or defiantly claim that the poor have been empowered by this move, but the truth is as far away from that, as the earth from the sun. It should be understood that the soldier too is a part of the collective of the common man. The soldier too can and will face all the problems we face. It’s shameful to cheapen anyone’s life and struggle with an argument that compares them to a straw man soldier. Maybe this story should serve as an example for those who make arguments as inane as the soldier one.
No man’s life is worth any less. Neither the soldier's, nor the civilian's.