In a move aimed at instilling patriotism among the students across the country, the Centre on Tuesday launched a Vidya Veerta Abhiyaan, jointly coordinated by the HRD and Defence Ministries. The Centre expressed the hope that this will help revive and re-energize the patriotic fervour in young minds.
Highlighting the importance of such an education, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said through this campaign a wall of valour will be built in colleges and universities across the country and this will be built on contributory funding by students and teachers on voluntary basis. He said this wall will be 15X20 feet in size and will depict the portraits of all the 21 Paramveer Chakra recipients. “Wall of heroes with portraits of Param Veer Chakra awardees will come up at around 1,000 schools and colleges across the country to inspire the youth,” Javadekar said.
He said organising of such events help in changing atmosphere in our colleges and universities. “It is just to revive the patriotic feeling in our youth. We are not interested to teach lessons of patriotism to anyone as it is innate in every individual but its continuous revival is a dire need,” Javadekar said launching the programme.
Minister of State for Defence Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, senior officers of Defence, Paramveer Chakra recipient Grenadier Sanjay Kumar and Subedar Yogendra Singh Yadav were present on the occasion. A collage of photo portraits and book on Paramveer Chakra recipients was also released and presented to Vice-Chancellors of universities.
Javadekar also expressed his gratitude towards the most difficult service rendered by our armed forces. He said we feel secure just because of the continuous vigil and alertness of our forces busy in securing our borders.
The Minister said these are our real post independence heroes while the freedom fighters who laid their lives and faced atrocities for the cause of freedom are the natural heroes since the days of Satyagraha which culminated in the revolution for getting independence from the foreign rule.