In a first, JNU to celebrate Kargil Vijay Diwas today

JNU will celebrate the day by marching with a 600-feet long tricolour and the festivities are expected to be inaugurated by vice chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) will organise Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrations on Sunday for the first time.

Students in front of the administrative building of JNU in New Delhi. (HT File Photo)

JNU will celebrate the day by marching with a 600-feet long tricolour and the festivities are expected to be inaugurated by vice chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar. The event is expected to see prominent faces including cricketer Gautam Gambhir, major general GD Bakshi, minister of state for external affairs VK Singh, and minister of petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan.

“We will also have a performance by the army band. Female family members of those who have been martyred in the Kargil war will also be joining the event,” said Buddha Singh, the coordinator of the event and an assistant professor at the university.

Singh said that the event was part of the larger Vidya Veerta Abhiyan initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. “We had earlier been asked by the ministry to set up a Wall of Heroes, with all the Param Vir Chakra awardees, to honour their supreme sacrifice for the country. We will be felicitating these brave men, and also honour the memory of the martyrs,” said Singh.

According to Singh, the event will help boost the morale of army men. “There is a growing discourse among some students that is anti-army. Some are trying to incite negative opinions and hatred towards them. This can be demoralising for our army men. So at the event we would like to stop this discourse and talk about how army men do not die for any one particular religion, or political party. They die for all the citizens of India,” he said.