Pedaller of hope
Twelve years, 111 cycle rallies, 75 families of Prisoners Of War and martyrs, all with the selfless motive of spreading awareness and keeping them alive in Indian memory. 52-year-old Hira Lal Yadav has been cycling through the streets of India, collecting letters written by POWs and their photographs, trying to create awareness through pamphlets and mass rallies with a hope of somehow bringing back home this lost population.
SUNIL THAPLIYAL reports
Fidus Achates, perhaps this is the title that 52-year-old Hira Lal Yadav can be best honoured with as he has been acting like a trusted friend to many families for decades.
Just like the wheels of time, Yadav's cycle has reached out to families of those persons whose relatives have been Prisoners of War in many Pakistani jails.
Yadav's mission: Highlighting the plight of such families and wiping the dust from the Government's memory so that some action can be taken to bring the soldiers back home.
Since 1997, Yadav has pedaled in more than 111 cycle rallies across the country. While the initial issue taken up by him was drugs, it slowly forayed into another serious one — that of POWs.
Yadav's past is nothing extraordinary. He was just another man who came from a rural background and left his ancestral place in Gorakhpur to head for Mumbai in search of a living. That was in 1981.
The thought of trying to help others came to him while Yadav was smoking a cigarette. "After I threw the stub and walked away, I realised that my son had picked it and was puffing on it. I realised that if a child can learn a thing by just observing, perhaps my selfless motive of helping soldiers' families would force youngsters to ponder over the plight of the hundreds of soldiers languishing in jails across Pakistan, especially the one at Kot Lakhpat.
“My motive is simple. To generate enough publicity and make students and the public aware so that the POWs are released," Yadav says.
For a civilian, the war ends within a few weeks, but a soldier's family has to fight another war that rages for a lifetime. Time and again, the issue of POWs has been raised but the Pakistani Government has cursedly denied having any such prisoners. In July, 2001, when then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf visited India, he harped on the same chord.
“However, by then the Kargil War had revealed otherwise. We have been trying to pressurise the Government to secure the release of prisoners. A delegation of family members of Indian POWs was sent to Pakistan in 2007. Even many Pakistani human rights activists are working on this," Yadav adds.
When Yadav was touring the country to raise awareness about drugs, the sacrifice of Indian soldiers came to his mind during the golden jubilee Independence Day celebrations in 1997. He says: "I started working on the POWs issue as I felt that in all our Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations we had failed to respect our soldiers.
“We only remember them during crisis. I decided to tour the country to raise awareness because, unfortunately, the young generation does not have any knowledge about the supreme sacrifices made by our freedom fighters and soldiers. There is hardly any information readily available on them.”
“The turning point of my mission came when I saw the bodies of our beloved soldiers covered by the Tricolour. Most martyrs had not even crossed their mid-20s. I felt that if such soldiers were taken POWs, then they would be suffering a great deal in jails," Yadav added.
Since then, Yadav has cycled to the homes of many martyrs, starting from that of the 1965 Indo-Pak War hero Abdul Hameed, whose act of gallantry won him the Paramveer Chakra.
During the Kargil War, Yadav travelled to the war zone from Mumbai on a bicycle without a seat. He travelled for 200 days through Nagpur, Chennai, Bihar and the Wagah border to meet his objective.
During the Kargil War, Captain Vikram Batra became a martyr. But, after 10 years, people hardly remember him. His proud father GL Batra says: "Though we do not expect anything, sometimes it hurts how people can forget the sacrifices of our soldiers. Hira Lal Yadav has been in touch with us and it gives us relief to learn that there are people who still love their soldiers and acknowledge them."
Hira has been working as a bridge between civilians and the armed forces. He collects the last letters of martyrs and POWs and shows them to college students, citing their numerous acts of heroism. He collects posters from students of universities across the country and exhibits them in various cities to spread awareness about the soldiers.
"Today's youth must come out of their fascination for the glamour world of movies and sports. They should look beyond and see soldiers as their idols," Yadav says.
"My son, Captain Saurabh Kalia, sacrificed his life for the nation. He did his duty very well. He made me proud. People respect us. Even though I lost one son, I got thousands in return. All this has come due to people like Hira Lal Yadav, who are in a mission to highlight the bravery of soldiers," said M K Kalia.
Yadav also says that when he started, dissemination of information was tough. "But now, in the era of Internet and Information Technology, people can pressurize Governments of both countries to release the prisoners".
"All this can be achieved by sending emails and being part of signature campaigns that show their concern. We don't have any other option, and we can only try. At least now people have knowledge and are worried about those 54 forgotten war heroes who are in the Pakistani jail for decades. I think this is the result of our campaign," Yadav says.
Yadav even tried his level best to help POW families financially. "Earlier, I used to have donation boxes when I went about my awareness programmes.
This generated some funds that I used to give to the needy families. However, my network is not that huge that I could get enough support for the martyrs' families. But I plan to add more people for the cause and help all those soldiers who are handicapped, or medically unfit," he adds.
Yadav says that even though the Government may not be helping him in his efforts, he's fine with it. He says: "The Government should just concentrate on its job, and I will on mine. I can't say any more in this regard."
Taking his efforts a mile forward, Hira Lal Yadav has even written a book called "Salaam Sainik" which is a collection of poems. Written in 2005, the book was released by Yogendera Singh Yadav, a Paramveer Chakra awardee.
"My poems have been well appreciated by the jawans. When I went to Ambala Cantonment for recitation of my poems, I found hundreds of army men waiting for my programme to start. After I recited the poems, I got a standing ovation from them as they truly paint a picture of the life led by them. An officer even came up and said that it was the first time that he had seen an effort made by any civilian to support the Army," Yadav added.
Yadav has been suffering from kidney stones and back problem. More so, he began his 'act of healing' at the age of 40, when most people resign themselves to the everyday burdens of life and prefer to lead a fixed routine. Yadav was also advised by doctors not to undertake any task that involved a lot of physical activity. But he carried on despite the warnings.
"No hurdle can stop me from my mission. My pain is nothing compared to the sufferings of martyrs' families. If they can bear the pain, then why can't I do this little thing for them?” questions Yadav.
Hira Lal's personal life was also affected by his honest cause. But all is well now on the home front. His 18-year-old son, Pradeep, who is in 12th standard and yearns of becoming an MBA says: "Earlier I used to miss him. Sometimes I felt bad. But as I grew up, I realised the importance of his work. Now it really makes me proud. However, as he's busy traveling and his schedule is awry, all familial responsibilities have fallen on my mother and elder brother. But we don't have any problems. We love him and can bear anything for this noble cause."
Stark reality
· In a book published in 1980 titled Bhutto — Trial and Execution written by Victoria Schofield, a senior BBC London reporter, covering the period 1978 when Bhutto was detained in Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore. Page No 59 reads: “(Bhutto’s) cell separated from a barrack area by a 10 foot high wall did not prevent him from hearing horrific shrieks and screams at night from the other side of the wall. One of Bhutto’s lawyers made enquires amongst the jail staff and ascertained that they were in fact Indian Prisoners of War who had been rendered delinquent and mental during the course of the 1971 war.”
· The name of Major Ashok Suri was mentioned on January 6 and 7, 1972 in Punjabi Darbar programme of Lahore. His father also received letters from a Karachi jail on August 13, 1975 dated June 14/15/16, 1975 stating that their were 20 other officers with him there.
· Mohanlal Bhaskar, who was in a jail between 1968 and 1974 and repatriated on December 9, 1974 wrote a book (Main Pakistan Mein Bharat Ka Jasoos Tha) and gave a signed affidavit stating that in Fort of Attock, a Pakistani Major Ayaj Ahmed Sipra (imprisoned for conspiring against Bhutto) spoke of his befriending a Gill of the Indian Air Force and a Captain Singh of the Indian Army as well as mentioning that there were around 40 Pows of the 1965 and 1971 wars in that jail who had no chances of release.
· There is other evidence, a photo in Time magazine of Major Ghosh in a Pakistani jail published on December 27, 1971.
