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Military Literature Festival: ‘Armed forces are true reflection of unity in diversity’
Badal said that at the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, large troops were Muslims serving under Italian and French generals
On Day3 of the Military Literature Festival, a special session was held virtually on “Pluralism, the defence forces, and the question of who is an Indian”.
The session was attended by General VP Malik (retd), Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Maj Gen AP Singh (retd) and Col Shantanu Pandey; it was moderated by Lt Gen NS Brar (retd).
General Malik said that the armed forces were a true reflection of the basic concept of unity in diversity. “Soldiers from all classes and religions are living together in barracks and eating from the same kitchens. Secularism, discipline, integrity and loyalty are the essential values that are integrated among our men and women,” said he.
“We have great concern about unity and pluralism in the Indian Army,” he said, adding that schools and colleges should play a key role through programmes like NCC, however, sadly a large number of schools were not doing so.
Talking about history, Badal said that at the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, large troops were Muslims serving under Italian and French generals.
Gen AP Singh said, “Even though we have different religions, we all live happily; we all are from various classes.” Col Pandey said, “We have a rich history of the army of Chhatrapati Shivaji and Laxmi Bai, which were beyond casteism and inspirational for us.”
