Bengal Government’s Half-Hearted Tribute to the Uri Martyrs

In Bengal while Uri martyrs are awarded Rs 2 lakh as compensation, Haj victims get Rs 10 lakh, writes Manoj Mohanka

Sangram (battle/war) appears to be the same as Sangrampur  for our Hon’ble CM and the West Bengal (WB) government. In December 2011, Rs 2 lakh was granted to each of the families who had lost a family member in the hooch tragedy in Sangrampur of the 24 Parganas south district of West Bengal. If I am not wrong, the number of those who died was well over a hundred, so the total outgo was not insignificant.

Totally egalitarian and even-handed in her approach, she has granted a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the two, repeat two sepoys from WB who died in the recent Uri tragedy.

Give Soldiers their Due Respect

Incidentally, around the same time last year, the family of a Haj pilgrim from WB, who died in the stampede in Mecca, was granted Rs 10 lakh.

Not one minister from the state government attended the funeral of Sepoys Gangadhar Dolui and Biswajit Gharai.

I am not going into what Bihar or UP did for the families of their deceased soldiers in Uri. I am viewing the WB govt on a stand-alone basis; parity with those who die drinking hooch — is this the respect we ought to show those who sign up to defend our borders and sacrifice their lives?

(Manoj Mohanka is a businessman who follows politics and religion closely and runs a trust to educate Muslim girls coming from poor families. This is a personal blog and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)