The issue of setting up a ‘War memorial’ in the State capital has turned into a battle of scoring political points between the State units of the Congress and the BJP. The long pending issue of memorial for martyrs got a fillip recently when the Union Government cleared the proposal to set it up at Cheer Bagh in the Dehradun Cantonment. The Member of Parliament (MP) from Rajya Sabha, Tarun Vijay played a key role in rushing the file of war memorial which was languishing in the Defence Ministry for long and got necessary clearance. He even declared that the he would provide entire budget of its construction from his MP fund. The Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the memorial on August 22.
The declaration caught the ruling Congress Party in Uttarakhand on wrong foot. It is worth mentioning here that any issue related with armed forces becomes very sensitive in the State where the armed forces personnel both serving and retired, are in such large numbers that they constitute an important and even decisive vote bank.
On Monday the Chief Minister Harish Rawat visited a site selected by the district administration along with Chairman of Sainik Kalyan Parishad (SKP), lt General Gambhir Singh Negi (Rtd) and directed the officials to expedite the process of selection of site for a war memorial. On the occasion of Kargil day on July 26 the CM had declared that a magnificent war memorial would be constructed in the state and for it he constituted a three member committee headed by Sainik Kalyan Minister Harak Singh Rawat.
When contacted the BJP Rajya Sabha MP, Tarun Vijay said that the state government has woken up very late and is showing a delayed response on the issue. He however added that party politics should be kept away from such matters. Vijay said that he personally don’t want to politicize the issue of war memorial.
Interestingly the Chairman of Sainik Kalyan Nigam lt Gen Negi (Rtd) expressed ignorance about plans to construct ‘War memorial’ at Cheer Bagh.
“There is no official communication from the Defence Ministry to the state government on the War memorial. I have learned this only through newspapers that Cheer Bagh is selected as War memorial,” he quipped. Gen Negi blamed the BJP MP Vijay for trying to take political mileage out of the issue.
He said that War memorial needs regular maintenance and it is not clear which agency would do it at Cheer Bagh. The Chairman of SKP said that the state government is ready to work along with the union government for construction of an appropriate and magnificent ‘War Memorial’ provided it is taken in confidence on the sensitive matter by the Union Government.