Kargil hero wounded by government: Maha Vir Chakra winner shot five times is denied border war benefits




Hero: Havildar Digendra Kumar was gravely wounded in an action which proved to be the turning point of the Kargil War

He had earned the nation's second highest gallantry award at 30. At 44, he feels humiliated and short-changed by the Army he was once part of, and the civil administration of Rajasthan, his home state. Meet Havildar (retired) Digendra Kumar, Maha Vir Chakra.



"Did I not fight to protect the motherland? How can I be humiliated like this?" Kumar wants to know. A little more than two years after joining the Indian Army's Rajputana Rifles in 1985, Kumar had earned a reputation for bravery as the Indian Peace Keeping Force took on Prabhakaran's Tigers in Sri Lanka's jungles. It was all in a day's work for Kumar as he shot down militants, blew up enemy ammunition depots, and rescued captured paratroopers.



A few years later, Kumar was making short work of militants in Kashmir's Kupwara, earning a Sena Medal for his courage. The year after Kupwara, 1993, saw Kumar at the siege of Hazratbal, an action for which he was commended yet again. By 1999, the much-decorated Digendra Kumar had been honed into one of India's best commandos. On June 13, he showed what he was made of, playing a key role in the recapture of the 15,000-foot Tololing Top, the first Indian success and turning point of the Kargil War. Kumar, who took five bullets in the action, was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra.



On India's 67th Independence Day, this 44-year-old real-life hero feels betrayed by the country he fought and almost died for.



Benefits denied



First, the Army denied Kumar the disability benefits he is entitled to after being classified as 80 per cent disabled by an Indian Army medical board. When they did - after Kumar moved the Armed Forces Tribunal - they took two years.



Kumar is still being denied the ex-gratia benefits he is entitled to as a Kargil veteran. And the state government, which was to allot Kumar agricultural land for being a gallantry award winner, has marked out the prize at a location almost 500 km from his Sikar home.



The Army didn't give Kumar his disability pension - he "retired voluntarily". The Army paid up only when the Armed Forces Tribunal bench at Jaipur pulled it up for the "inhuman and unfortunate decision that deserved to be deprecated". A penalty of Rs 30,000 was imposed on the Army for its "lack of sensitivity". The Army took another two years to implement the tribunal's order of April 12, 2010. And it's still not all right.



Havildar Digendra Kumar being awarded the Maha Vir Chakra by the then President K.R. Narayanan in 2000

According to the Fifth Pay Commission, a disability of over 76 per cent should be treated as 100 per cent disability, says Kumar's counsel, Col. (retired) S.B. Singh. Now, the Army continues to deny Kumar the ex-gratia benefits announced by the government under its 'Kargil Package'. These included an ex-gratia payment of Rs 6 lakh for 75 per cent to 100 per cent disability, Rs 5 lakh for a dwelling unit, Rs 1 lakh per child for education, assistance of Rs 1.20 lakh to parents, state-of-the-art medical treatment, vocational training for the injured and insurance amount of Rs 10 lakh.



The reason for this, the Army maintains, is that Kumar retired voluntarily, six years after Kargil and four years before advance completion of his service, as havildar. Col. Singh won't have it. When the tribunal awarded him pension for war-related injuries he should be given all war-related benefits, he says. "I have decided to move court against the Army," Kumar told Mail Today.



The Rajasthan government has done its sad bit too. It allotted Kumar the piece of land he is entitled to in the command area of the Indira Gandhi Canal at Nachna in Bikaner district. Kumar says the rules governing such allotments enable a gallantry awardee to get land in his home district. These rules were amended in 2006 but even they say that a soldier can get land in his home district if he received a gallantry award before 2005, said Kumar.



Land allotment



The Sikar Collector accepted Kumar's request on land allotment, and forwarded on October 22, 2008 a proposal on the same by the tehsildar of Sikar's Neemka-Thana tehsil. The collector's recommendation has disappeared within the state's colonisation department.



And nobody, including Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, has the time to listen to Havildar (retired) Digendra Kumar, Maha Vir Chakra.











