BSF Constable Tej Bahadur Singh, who had made headlines by posting a video on Facebook complaining about the poor quality of food served to the BSF soldiers, will be contesting as an independent candidate against PM Narendra Modi in Varanasi.
TB Yadav (BSF constable who was dismissed from service in ’17 after he had released video on quality of food served to soldiers): Contesting as independent candidate from Varanasi. PM had said ‘will give status of martyrs to soldiers of paramilitary forces,will give them pension’ pic.twitter.com/PuDRIs9DzH
— ANI (@ANI) March 31, 2019
Yadav, who was dismissed from the service on disciplinary grounds, questioned the PM about his promise of giving the status of martyrs to soldiers of paramilitary forces and giving them pension. Calling himself “asli chowkidar” and the PM as “nakli chowkidar”, Yadav said that it is an equal fight as both are chowkidars one is real and the other is fake.
Tej Bahadur Yadav, Independent candidate from Varanasi Parliamentary Constituency: I will ask PM, ‘you had made promises, what all did you do till date? Tell us.’ It’s an equal fight, on one side you have ‘asli chowkidaar’ and on the other you have ‘nakli chowkidaar. pic.twitter.com/XIgSylCZRJ
— ANI (@ANI) March 31, 2019
Yadav’s video had created outrage on social media as he had alleged that the government was sending all the necessary supplies but the senior officials have been misappropriating the funds. An inquiry was subsequently ordered into the matter. The PMO had also sought a report on the incident and new guidelines were issued regarding the food supplied to the jawans.
In an affidavit submitted to the Delhi High Court by Defence Ministry had clarified that this is a misconception that army, navy and air force personnel are granted the ‘martyr’ or ‘shaheed’ status while the same is not granted to Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) like CRPF, BSF, Assam Riffles etc. The government had said that no such status is accorded to the defence forces, hence the question of according an equal status to CAPF does not arise. Responding to a petition, the affidavit had mentioned that “the prayer of the petitioner that the status of ‘martyr’ or ‘shaheed’ be given to the deceased Paramilitary Armed Forces personnel at par with army, navy and air force is misconceived and unfounded”. The government had clarified that paramilitary forces were not denied any due status as alleged.
Despite the clarification from the government in the court, opposition parties, including Rahul Gandhi continues to spread the lie that the government is depriving the paramilitary forces the status. The Congress president has even promised to accord the status if his party comes to power, which is a misleading statement. It is unfortunate to note that even people who have worked in BSF believe in the misconception.
