At a time when even the children of the officers of the defence forces hardly join the department, it is pleasing to see Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's brother working as a subedar in the Indian Army. He is deployed on the Line of Actual Control with China.

India Today TV met the soldier while meeting the troops guarding the Chinese border, which has become sensitive amidst threats that the Chinese may carry out incursion in areas where the deployment is not as thick as the other sensitive areas.

"We carry out patrolling along the border throughout the year against any security challenge. This area is our homeland and we will protect it at any cost," says Subedar Shailendra Mohan, younger brother of Yogi.

The soldier is posted near the Mana border with China in the Garhwal Scouts unit which employs only locals as soldiers to guard the mountainous borders.

Asked whether he gets time to meet his elder brother, who renounced the world to join the Gorakhpur-based Gorakhnath Temple, he said he had met him in Delhi only once after he took over as the chief ministerof UP.

Shailendra also said his brother Yogi's only message to him was that he should serve the country to the best of his ability while sharing his own experiences in the service of the nation.

Shailendra added that he and the chief minister, whom he and his family refer to as 'Maharajji' have spent quite a lot of time together as kids - while sharing anecdotes about the firebrand BJP leader

The subedar then went on to add that he and Yogi Adityanath are carrying out similar duties for the country - as Yogi was serving the nation as the UP chief minister, while Shailendra was doing the similar job at the borders as an armyman.

Yogi has three brothers - Manvendra Mohan being elder to him and Shailendra and Mahendra Mohan being the younger ones.