Netas in battle-gear

Territorial Army was thrown into the limelight last week when Sachin Pilot became the first sitting Union minister to get commissioned into the part-time citizen’s force. Politicians in the West have had a military tradition, Rahul Singh writes.

Territorial Army was thrown into the limelight last week when Sachin Pilot became the first

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sitting Union minister to get commissioned into the part-time citizen’s force.

Sachin’s entry could encourage young MPs to don battle fatigues. Politicians in the West have had a military tradition.

Twenty-two sitting British MPs and sons of 85 parliamentarians were killed in World War I.

Two British PMs — Herbert Henry Asquith and Andrew Bonar Law — lost their sons in the same war.

Several US Presidents, including Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, were war veterans.