Jhalawar collector Jitendra Kumar Soni was so shaken at the sight of the child at the funeral that he had to write to her immediately.
New Delhi: A five-month-old sprawled on the tricolour-draped coffin of her father left a Rajasthan collector so shaken that he felt compelled to write her a letter.
Army paratrooper Mukut Bihari Meena was killed in action during a counter-insurgency operation in Kashmir on 11 July. His daughter, Aaru, was photographed lying on his coffin three days later during his funeral on 14 July.
The sight spurred Jhalawar collector Jitendra Kumar Soni, who was present at the funeral, to reach out to her. The letter he subsequently wrote to Aaru has since gone viral.
“Within half an hour of his body being set down, I noticed Aaru sprawled across him. I don’t know what was going on in the innocent mind of hers, or whether she understood what had just happened,” Soni told ThePrint.
“When I sat there watching this little girl, I couldn’t help but think about the immeasurable pain that the family members of our soldiers go through. We can never understand their loss,” he said.
He then wrote a Facebook post in a bid to work through his emotions, and addressed it to “martyr’s daughter Aaru”, sending the text to Meena’s family on WhatsApp.
“All I wanted was to explain the situation to this young child. I knew I couldn’t have waited for her to grow up, because then maybe I wouldn’t have been able to say it so well. At the same time, I knew I couldn’t just orally tell her, she’s all but five months old. So I decided to write to her,” said Soni.
Soni wrote in the letter, “Dear Aaru, when you were seated on the coffin and touched it without crying, I could not understand what was going on in your heart and mind… but it was very emotional. The several Army officers present during the funeral and I were watching you and I can say that it was your innocence and your father’s supreme sacrifice that was on everyone’s mind.”
The letter went on to talk about the sacrifice made by her father. “He promised you that he would be back by ‘rakshabandhan’, but his promise to his motherland was stronger,” he added.
Soni then urged Aaru to draw comfort from pride for her father’s sacrifice. “The entire country mourns with you,” he wrote.
The government is reportedly mulling a proposal to name a senior secondary school in the area after Meena, and is expected to offer help to his family.
The family, however, has received no official communication from the government yet. Even so, they say the collector’s letter moved them.
“It meant a great deal that he took time out for our little girl. His heartfelt letter moved us too. We hope when Aaru grows up, she’ll feel the same way,” Shambhudyal, Meena’s elder brother, told ThePrint.
Read in Hindi: राजस्थान के कलेक्टर ने जम्मू-कश्मीर में शहीद हुए पैराट्रूपर की 5 महीने की बच्ची को क्यों लिखा पत्र