Cover Story: Kargil War: Doing Their Bit

From convicts to corporates to teenagers, they all want to play a part in the war or just help. Even the political parties have joined the competitive philanthrophy race.

Zeal of Kargil: Army convoys like this one on the Jammu highway are routinely stopped and piled with water and food by charged locals.

In 1948 Brigadier Usman Ansari and his men saved Srinagar from being overrun by Pakistani raiders. So you shouldn't be surprised if his nephew wanted to follow in his patriotic footsteps. "I too want to join the battle in Kargil and sacrifice my life for my country," pleaded Brigadier Ansari's nephew Mukhtar Ansari in Lucknow last week.

The only problem is Mukhtar Ansari is a notorious Uttar Pradesh don facing court trials in a number of murder and abduction cases. Patriotism, it is famously said, is the last refuge of the scoundrel. Like Ansari, many convicts and undertrials in various jails from Bihar to Maharashtra have been petitioning courts to let them out so that they can join in the battle.

Their sudden desire to serve India might be no more than a ruse to escape jail, but Kargil is clearly creating an unprecedented upsurge of patriotism across the nation, often from the unlikeliest sources. In Delhi's red-light area of G.B. Road, brothel owner Nimmi Bai is busy urging her colleagues to contribute money for the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. "Society may shun us, but we understand the pain of the widows," she says. "Who will help them when their soldiers die?" At another end of the social spectrum, Mumbai schoolboy Ashwin Desai, 14, and his friends -- who never read the newspapers until now -- are going to stop playing pool or video games and contribute a month's pocket money.

A deep sense of empathy, patriotism, even guilt, is sweeping India. People take to the streets, contribute money, burn effigies of Nawaz Sharif, young men fired by Kargil are lining up at army recruitment centres in record numbers and infotech workers fight information wars, hacking Pakistani sites. But India still isn't putting its money where its emotions are.

Real Needs
Expressions of solidarity and protests are abundant. But this is what the army really wants:

Shelter: Two-room prefabricated dwellings for bereaved families. Technical help and cash.
Jobs: Many widows need jobs, vocational training or cash for self-employment.
Education: Scholarships for the education of the dead jawans' children. Army hostels need to be expanded. Buses required for schools.
Support for the Disabled: Artificial limbs and motorised wheelchairs and jobs for soldiers who have lost limbs in the war.
Cash: Lots more money needed. Contributions can be made in crossed cheques/ drafts in favour of Army Central Welfare Fund and sent to:
Deputy Director (CW-8)
Adjutant General's Branch,
West Block III, Room No. 76
R.K. Puram, New Delhi 110 066
Phone: 91-11-6196217/ 3018112
Fax: 91-11-3792511/ 3375136

Overall contributions total more than Rs 160 crore, but that money isn't necessarily going to be used for the welfare of disabled soldiers and the families of the dead. At the time of writing, contributions to the army's Central Welfare Fund added up to less than Rs 1.5 crore -- and that's both individual and corporate donations. Contrast that with money spent on World Cup-related campaigns: around Rs 400 crore. The army wants either money or sensible contributions: like Delhi's Essar Cellphone, which has given cell phones to the army hospital so that injured soldiers can talk to families; like Coke, which says it will employ family members of dead soldiers or disabled soldiers in bottling plants.

Some of the patriotism is quite misplaced. Blood donation camps are springing up in jails, offices and neighbourhoods, and the Delhi Red Cross reports a glut of blood -- for once. The thing is that the army just does not need it, but those eternally on waitlists for blood, like thalessaemics, are suddenly breathing a sigh of relief. Corporate India is releasing advertisements announcing cash or contributions to the cause -- never mind that some of the donations they announce don't actually reach the army.

Others fiercely refute the sniggering comments that they are cashing in on patriotism, like Baron International's announcement that it would donate Rs 100 to the army from the sale of each Aiwa music system or TV set. "As regards people saying it's a sales promotion exercise, let me tell you no one will buy a Rs 15,000 set to contribute Rs 100," says CEO Kabir Mulchandani. "The campaign hasn't impacted our sales at all."

Some find the new-found patriotism galling. "Let us not forget that close to a thousand soldiers were killed last year and that was peace time," says B.V. R. Subbu, director, marketing and sales, Hyundai Motors, who auctioned its first five cars in September last for a technical education fund for the children of dead soldiers. "The corporate sector should have been alive to their needs then as well."

Significant cash contributions have come in from the oil companies,Rs 80 crore, power companies, Rs 50 crore, all to the National Defence Fund. But this fund is administered directly by the government and any release of money for the welfare of soldiers is at its discretion. So much more needs to be done. The army needs at least Rs 200 crore to take care of the needs of bereaved families and disabled soldiers. Apart from cash, it requires shelter, employment and educational opportunities for the families of dead soldiers and support for the disabled. A prefabricated shelter costs Rs 3 lakh. Scholarships for education of children is a recurring expenditure of Rs 3-5 crore each year. There's a growing need for artificial limbs and motorised wheelchairs. And there aren't enough jobs.

"At a time when there is a crisis, the soldier is looking for izzat (honour), a national salute for his sacrifice," says Lt-General S.S. Grewal, adjutant general. "I want the nation to support the soldier and his family, especially the disabled, every day they live."