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Brig KS Chandpuri I knew: Hero of Longewala played by Sunny Deol in ‘Border’

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Brig. Chandpuri and his soldiers had successfully stalled the march of an entire Pakistani tank regiment in the 1971 war.

New Delhi: I first met Brigadier Kuldip Singh Chandpuri in 2002 – he a legend, I a young reporter still trying to find my feet in Chandigarh.

Brig. Chandpuri was a household name, but not because he (he was a Major then) and 120-odd brave soldiers had successfully stalled the march of an entire tank regiment of Pakistan in the Longewala area in the 1971 India-Pakistan war – an act of bravery for which he was given the Maha Vir Chakra.

He had re-entered the public mindspace after Sunny Deol played him in the Bollywood megahit Border in 1997 – remember the scene where a furious Sunny Deol rushes, one grenade in each hand, to enemy tanks charging towards India?

Sitting in Brig. Chandpuri’s Sector 33, Chandigarh, house, I asked the obvious question: Did he really do it (charge towards the Pakistan tanks)?

The retired Army officer laughed, an embarrassed laugh, and replied as only a soldier could: “Don’t believe everything you see in the movie. Film hit bhi karni sigi (The film had to have scenes to make it a hit).”

Then I asked him my second question: Why don’t too many bravery award winners in the Army become Generals? “Most die in battle. Some like me survive and retire,” he said, “When faujis are committing what you are calling acts of bravery, a medal is the last thing on their mind. It is izzat – apnipaltan (unit) kiaursabse upar,desh ki (We are fighting for honour – our own, our unit’s and, above all, the country’s).”

Two years later, I was back at his house as a reporter – in between, I had visited or met him several times socially.


Also read: How the Indian army went deep into enemy territory to take the Haji Pir pass in 1965 war


A matter of ‘izzat’

The Brigadier, along with several other awardees, I had found out, had been deprived of plots by successive Punjab governments on flimsy grounds, with pen-pushing civil servants coming up with novel excuses to continue denying them the land.

Capt. Amarinder Singh had taken over as chief minister in 2002 and the Brigadier and some other retired officers – all Vir Chakra or Maha Vir Chakra awardees – had approached him to undo the arbitrary order.

When I arrived at Brig Chandpuri’s house, some of the other decorated officers were there as well, eager to tell me how the civil servants had taken them for a ride.

Why make the representation now? After all, the land had been promised in 1977 and we were in 2004. Didn’t this prove right the officer who had written on the file that the request appeared to have “emanated from the fact that the market value of the land has escalated much more as compared to the monetary value of Rs 30,000 in 1977”.

“It isn’t about the land,” one of the officers said. “I am content with whatever I have. It is about izzat. The government has cheated us and we need to fight back. We may not win, but what else can we do? Remaining silent isn’t an option.”

Brig Chandpuri concurred.

Today, 14 years later, I don’t know if he and his fellow soldiers won that battle. But the news that he lost his ongoing battle with cancer at a hospital in Mohali Saturday morning took me back to a quote the Army officer gave me at his house: “In the Army, izzat is the biggest thing.”

RIP, sir.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. RIP Brigadier Kuldip Singh Chandpuri. You served our country well. Love, Respect & Salute from Kerala.

    “wahe guru da khalsa, waheguru ki fateh”

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