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MoS Home praises CRPF, recalls ‘big damage’ it caused to China in 1959
Nityanand Rai drew parallels between the 1959 incident and the June 15 clash in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a face-off with the Chinese troops in Ladakh.
Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai on Monday paid tribute to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) for its valour and sacrifice while recalling the “big damage” it caused to the Chinese Liberation Army (PLA) when it attacked a patrol of the Indian paramilitary force in Ladakh in October 1959. He drew parallels between the 1959 incident and the June 15 clash in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a face-off with the Chinese troops in Ladakh.
Rai said China faced similar consequences on June 15 as it did in 1959 during a clash with CRPF men in Ladakh’s Hot Springs even as the paramilitary force was outnumbered. “What a coincidence. Whenever China attacks, its strength is huge and ours is less... but China has always suffered the consequences,” said Rai at a function to mark CRPF’s 82nd foundation day without elaborating. Union home minister Amit Shah was scheduled to attend the event but he could not because of some other meeting.
China has not confirmed its casualties following the June 15 clash but has said they were on both sides. The clash marked the biggest loss of life in combat between India and China since 1967.
Rai said on October 21, 1959, PLA troops attacked the CRPF patrol and killed 10 Indian troops besides taking seven as prisoners. He added the force showed great valour and caused “big damage” to the Chinese. The day (October 21) is also celebrated as the police memorial day, he added.
“The CRPF has a rich history of valour and sacrifice...and on October 21, 1959, it showed that in Hot Springs in Ladakh when the Chinese attacked,” Rai said.
He said the CRPF defended the country in Gujarat’s Sardar Post when a small team repulsed an attack by a 3,000-strong Pakistani army contingent in 1965. “Pakistan would shake with fear whenever it would recall this incident.”
Rai said India has wiped out terrorism and naxalism (left-wing insurgency) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah’s leadership. He added 150 terrorists have been killed in Kashmir over the last six months. Rai said terrorists should know they will have to either change their ideology or will be wiped out.
Rai cited the 2019 Pulwama attack on a CRPF convoy in which 40 personnel were killed, and added Modi then declared this sacrifice will not go in vain.“The [air] force went into Pakistan and killed terrorists and Pakistan just kept watching. India did what it wanted to do,” Rai said, referring to the retaliatory air strikes in Pakistan’s Balakot in response to the attack.
Rai said the country’s first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel gave the President’s colours to CRPF on July 27, 1950, in recognition of its good work in aligning princely states with India post-independence. But an official later said Patel gave the colours on March 19, 1950. The first CRPF battalion was raised on July 27, 1939, the official added. The force was raised as the Crown Representatives Police under the British. It was renamed CRPF in 1949.
