Yeh Dil Maange More

It was Dec 2002. I reached Leh airport on my way to take over command of a logistics unit that had been the fulcrum for ammunition supply in the Kargil war. 

“Yeh Dil Maange More,” was one among the many advertising jingles of 1998. 19 June 1999 changed that. Lieutenant Vikram Batra, planning an attack on the daunting icy height in front of him, told his Commanding officer, “Sir, my success signal will be “Yeh Dil Maange More” (മനസ്സ് മന്ത്രിക്കുന്നു ഇനിയും). Vikram, despite serious injuries, led his troops to capture point 5140. At 0435 hrs on 20th, he radioed his Tiger, “Yeh Dil Maange More.” Vikram was promoted to the rank of captain and the Chief of the Army personally called to congratulate him. His bearded face filled TV screens across India, becoming a national hero overnight. Then, on Jul 7, he made the supreme sacrifice while capturing point 4875. 

On 14th, PM A B Vajpayee declared Operation Vijay a success. On 26th, our Army announced the complete withdrawal of Pakistani forces from the area they had illegally occupied. Kargil War officially ended. The country honoured Captain Vikram Batra posthumously with Param Vir Chakra.

The Government of India constituted the Kargil Review Committee, (KRC) on 29th, barely 3 days after the end of the War. The Committee completed its work on 15th December and submitted it to the PM on 7 Jan 2000, which was tabled in the Parliament on 23rd. It became public that grave intelligence failures and a lack of interdepartmental synergy led to the calamity. On April 17, the Government constituted a Group of Ministers to consider the recommendations of the KRC and formulate specifics for implementation, which finalised its report on 26 February 2001. 

I reached Kargil almost two and a half years after the official cessation of the war but my unit was still sending artillery rounds by truckloads to gun positions. Firing across the border was routine. Officers and men were deployed to clear munitions affected by enemy shelling making them fatal. Each was a potential death warrant. We also neutralised munitions, mostly shoulder-fired missiles, coming from across the LOC but did not detonate. Officers and men came and went after their tenure. We lost colleagues to bullets, shrapnel, accidents, and nature’s fury. They did not alter the Kargil toll. That is how statistics work.

The official ceasefire was signed in Nov 2003 and guns fell silent across the LoC. In the 29 months I commanded my unit in the high altitude sector, I travelled on the road Vikram Batra travelled many times. Each time I came to Drass, I paid tribute to him and all the brave souls. “Yeh Dil Maange More,” assumed a different meaning.

India’s resounding military victory in 1971 was in a war fought far away from our homes. It created a new Nation. The Kargil War was fought to save our country. Televisions brought the battlefield into our bedrooms and drawing rooms. Sitting in domestic comfort, we suffered the howling icy winds and laboured up unassailable treacherous peaks. We saw young officers barely out of their teens, leading from the front, many perishing in the true spirit of the Chetwode motto. They became our heroes, though for a few days. Oblivious of their faith we celebrated them, and mourned them as one, for a while. 

Twenty-five years have passed. Had GoM recommendations been implemented, it would  be possible to detect enemy intent well in advance, deter their plans and defeat them. But as recent events reveal, we may be nowhere near where we should have been. War is a serious business with death as wages. Once the optics and blame game are done, the dead become statistics. The wails of widows and mothers will become lonely silent tears and orphaned children will come to terms with loss. 

We celebrate the silver jubilee of the victory of the Kargil war today. My heart sobs, “Yeh Dil Maange More.”  (ഹൃദയം തേങ്ങുന്നു വീണ്ടും).

Was Vikram Batra prophetic in his choice of words?

(The author is Sena Medal (Retd), an author, blogger, and corporate trainer)