AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 210 of 332 A beginning was made in this direction by an NGO called Citizen4Forces based out of Delhi who decided to observe Kargil Diwas. The objectives of this association are very laudable and include: - Lending support to families of Martyrs. - Educating and spreading awareness among citizens regarding the Armed Forces - Glorifying the work of the Armed Forces to empower the youth with the right mindset to join these esteemed and respected profession. Shri Ankit Gupta was the then National Convener. Teams are located in India as well as abroad. As part of the programme of improving the awareness of the citizenry, trips to units in forward areas were organized where the common man can get a hands-on experience staying with the troops for a few days. Shri Harshad Mishra a student of the famed Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) a member of the group, had spent a few days in high altitude areas with the troops. He was so impressed that he stepped forward to join in the function to celebrate Kargil Diwas. Lt Col Jayakumar, after hanging up his boots from the Army, decided to join the Institute as Deputy Registrar. Being an officer of the Armed Forces, he readily agreed to support the students who wished to participate in the programme. Thus they were in touch with Col TN Raman, who was the coordinator for this function. Col KS Chakravarthi had made out a video presentation based on various clippings from the different TV channels, which had been aired earlier. Many of these clips had captured live action when the battle was raging. Col Chakravarthi had assiduously collected all these clips, and edited them suitably so as to include all beamed versions including those that were telecast at that time as well as those that were done a decade after the incident. It was decided that this would be screened at the IIT so that all those who attended the function would be made aware of the Kargil Operations. Thus the programme at IIT was to be centred on the video show. To briefly recapitulate, during May 1999, Pakistan intruded into India in the Kargil sector. This led to the short engagement better known as Kargil War. The last intruder from Pakistan was pushed back by 26 Jul 1999, which is celebrated throughout India by the Armed Forces as Kargil Vijay Diwas. During 1999, it was for the very first time that