Slain sepoy’s family on hunger strike: Love for Martyrs only for publicity?

The indefinite fast by the kin of Sepoy Sudesh Kumar, who was killed in Pakistani firing along the LoC in J&K last year, entered its third day on Sunday with his family members demanding that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visit their village.

However, the martyr's father, uncle and brother decided to travel to Moradabad division on Sunday, where Adityanath is on an official tour.

The patriots and pro-nationalism activists have made a hue and cry about respecting the armed men and women. Whenever a person on the armed-line dies everyone makes sure to call them martyrs and provide them a funeral with state respects.

Promises are showered on the family, who are most of the time in an economically bad condition. After all the sound and fury there is silence and the authorities hardly reach out to the family.

Sepoy Sudesh Kumar too gave life for the sake of the country. But the family is waiting for the compensation even after one year of Sudesh’s Martyrdom. It looks like the slogans and promises are only to project the leaders as people caring for the soldier’s life. If the family is not given compensation, no one will believe in such slogans. Authorities should understand that slogans will not fill stomachs of these soldiers’ families who have laid down their lives especially at the borders. The UP CM hearing the news instead of visiting the family decided to invite them to where he was headed to.

"On the request of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, three members of our family -- my father Brahmpal, uncle Sudhir Kumar and myself -- are going to Moradabad to meet the chief minister. But, our protest will continue till the chief minister visits our village," Manoj Kumar, told brother of the martyr to PTI.

Sudhir Kumar said that owing to the indefinite fast, the health of Sudesh Kumar's wife Kavita and his mother Santosh Kumari has deteriorated. Meanwhile, Dr Neeraj Sharma who inspected the health of the family members of the martyrs said that Kavita's blood pressure level had dipped. The doctor advised that she must be hospitalised.

On May 19, the martyr's family members and some others had gone on an indefinite fast in the Pansukha Milak village here, claiming that promises made to them were not fulfilled. The martyr's mother had threatened that if the chief minister did not visit them, she would commit suicide.

Sudesh's brother Manoj Kumar had said that the family were promised the sanction for a petrol pump, construction of a road, a memorial and renaming a village primary school in the martyr's name by the BJP leaders, but none of the promises was fulfilled.

Another brother, Anil Kumar, had said they had lost trust in local leaders and that was the reason they were demanding that the chief minister should visit them.

• Martyr
• Sepoy Sudesh Kumar
• Speoy family hunder strike