ETVBHARAT
  • 17 hours ago
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Transcript
00:00in the difficult areas of the country and the Prime Minister is there, the Defence Minister is there
00:05and because the political heads are there, it automatically means that the nation is with the Defence Forces
00:12and that I think is good for morale for everybody.
00:17The Armed Forces Veterans Day is being celebrated.
00:20The PM himself tweeted about the Armed Forces Veterans,
00:24men and women who have sacrificed and praised them
00:27and said that the government has done a lot for the Armed Forces Veterans
00:32and will continue to do so for their welfare.
00:35Look, the Veterans Day started for the first time in 2017
00:38and I think it is very important to celebrate these kinds of things.
00:46Firstly, for the morale of the Army
00:49and secondly, for the morale of the country
00:51because it connects with the Defence Forces of our Indians
00:56and this connection has been very strong in India
00:59because if you see, as far as the Indian public is concerned,
01:04from the beginning till today, their support is with our Defence Forces,
01:09with the Army, Air Force and Navy.
01:11They have always supported us.
01:13So, now that the Veterans Day has been celebrated,
01:16because people like us who have retired,
01:19that connection remains with our Army.
01:24So, on Veterans Day, one more thing happens
01:27that the serving soldiers meet the veterans again.
01:31Although we don't meet every day,
01:33but a day has been made that it is Veterans Day.
01:36So, we celebrate it as if it is someone's birthday.
01:39So, this has also become such a day.
01:41It started when, first of all, we took January 15
01:46because it is Army Day.
01:48So, Army Day is celebrated because
01:50on this day, for the first time in 1949,
01:55the command of the Indian Army
01:58was handed over to the British Commanding Officer-in-Chief, General Butcher,
02:06to General Kariyappa,
02:09later on Field Marshal Kariyappa,
02:10that time he was General Kariyappa.
02:12So, he handed it over.
02:14After that, the day General Kariyappa retired,
02:20he retired on January 14.
02:23And when he retired on January 14,
02:25he became our senior veteran.
02:28And because he became the senior veteran of Independent India,
02:31then Veterans Day was celebrated in his name.
02:35This is a little bit of history.
02:37Now, the Prime Minister has tweeted.
02:41See, the Prime Minister's support has always been with the Army.
02:45I remember that when this government was formed for the first time in 2014,
02:50and after that, there was talk of OROP,
02:53there was a little bit of agitation.
02:55So, at that time, there were two people who tried very hard
02:59to get one rank, one pension from their side.
03:02One was our Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar,
03:04and at that time, we had a few people,
03:07who had many meetings with Mr. Parrikar.
03:09So, I know this whole history.
03:11And the other was the Prime Minister.
03:13And he tried very hard to get through this.
03:17A lot of things come in between,
03:20but because of him, this went ahead, and this went ahead.
03:24And after that, I have seen that as far as our political establishment is concerned,
03:31it has always supported the Indian Army, the Indian Armed Forces.
03:37And along with that, our veterans also get the political support they need.
03:45Personally, I can say that we are grateful to the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister
03:52for their support.
03:54They continue to support us, and we will continue to do so.