My proud moment. Trying to preserve it.

Over 600 IMA cadets join the Army in style

PTI

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PTIReviewing Officer Gen J.J. Singh presenting the Sword of Honour to one of the cadets, during their passing out parade at Indian Military Academy in Dehradun on Saturday.

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It was a proud moment for 22-year-old Gaurav Hridaya, who was adjudged the best all-rounder cadet at the passing out parade at Indian Military Academy (IMA) on Saturday.

Besides a silver medal for standing second in the order of merit in regular course, Meerut-based Hridaya received the coveted Sword of Honour from Arunanchal Pradesh Governor Gen. (Retd) J.J. Singh for being the ‘Best All Round Gentleman Cadet’ of IMA.

Cadet Sumeet S. Lahane was awarded gold medal for standing first in the course while Yogendra Kathayat won bronze medal in the same course.

They were among the 602 cadets who became proud officers of the Indian army today, after they crossed the “final step” at the hallowed portals of the historic Chetwode building.

23 other cadets joined paramilitary force Assam Rifles following a ceremonious parade.

Gen Singh, who has been an alumni of the academy in 1964, was the reviewing officer of the parade. He also inspected a guard of honour while choppers showered petals.

132 cadets were from Uttar Pradesh, 56 from Haryana and 51 from hill state of Uttarakhand.

Besides, 625 cadets, 23 other cadets are from seven countries of Bhutan, Mauritius, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka also passed out of the IMA this year.

All the cadets were administered oath to the constitution by the Adjutant of the IMA amid tight security here.

From its first course of 40 Cadets, the IMA has so far trained nearly 49000 officers for the Indian army.

Later talking to reporters, Gen. (Retd) Singh termed the Naxalism as the bigger threat than the terrorism and asked the freshly recruited officers to keep updated on advanced methods to deal with such threats.

Regarding involving army in dealing with the problem of Naxalism, Gen. (Retd) Singh said it was up to the three chiefs of armed forces and the centre to take a decision on the issue.

When asked whether the cases of corruption are tarnishing the image of Indian army, Gen (Retd) Singh said although there are some black sheep but such cases cannot dent the honest image of army.

Keywords: IMA, Gen. (Retd) J.J. Singh, Army, Indian Military Academy, Dehra Dun

SPORTS IN INDIA

India 2020. We used to dream with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, and we are dreaming. Boom! And we are developed! We hope of leading exports, business, telecom and what not. Not to forget – Sports. Somehow, I feel that a country’s development has got something to do with the sports played in the country. USA was the world super power in the unipolar world, and it showed in how they always led the Olympics and the world championships. Today, it’s a multipolar world. Things are not the same. The medals at the topmost level are going to many nations – China, USA, UK, Australia, Germany, Russia, the list goes on. But it didn’t go unnoticed how China showed to the entire world, who is leading the sports in the world today. Equally noticed is how China has developed enough to become as good as a super power.

A very hardworking nation is ours too. Our Olympics ranking was 50^th in 2008. A similar ranking we have in TDI (trade & development Index) at 90. Yet worse is the HDI (Human Development Index) ranking at 128. If we are amongst the toppers in any list, it is population or the “Human Resource” in more pacifying terms. By 2020, if not anything else, we can sure hope to achieve the top rank there. But, it surprises many people across the world today, how in a country of billion we find it difficult to produce 1 gold medal in Olympics. It badly defeats any kind of law of averages, if the world ever had one. Think of it – not 1 in a 1,000,000,000??

We are here today. We see people perspiring. Saina Nehwal, Gagan Narang, Samresh Jung... the list of hard working people is endless. But most are either in established sports like shooting, being sponsored heavily by the top companies in the nation or are putting in their own resources to practise for the game. The nation, as a whole has shown a lack of political will, to improve the condition of sports. We got an opportunity to host the Commonwealth Games this year, and yes, we saw the political will to organise it. Tremendous! For some time I thought, the nation is moving on the right path after all. Hosting an event as big as that would surely boost the morale of the sportsmen and they will go for bigger and better things in life. And here we are, today, with our Organising Committee’s chairman Suresh Kalmadi, with a completely mud smeared face. Crores of money involved in the scam now is showing us the clearer picture of the tremendous political will we showed to host the games.

Day after day, I see athletes working hard, trying to make a mark. And it pains my heart because their effort is in vain. The country has no respect for the sportsmen as such – yes, we do respect the medals and who wins them. A couple of them make it on their own – no one backing their efforts. They make history. But, the rest are lost, forever.