25 years on, Kargil War martyr Daljit Singh’s family retraces its steps back in life after trauma

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, July 24

It is not just the pain of losing a young son in the Kargil War that this family had to endure almost 25 years ago, on July 11, 1999, but also other ordeals to get re-settled in life again.

Sapper Daljit Singh, eldest of the four sons of Kirpal Singh and Kamaljit Kaur, was just 26-year old and six years into the Army when he laid down his life for the country. He was married and had a year-and-a-half old daughter too.

At his house in Ekta Nagar, Kirpal Singh, who was then serving as a Sikh preacher at a gurdwara in Rama Mandi, recalls every moment and shares it piece by piece, “I was performing my duties at a religious programme on that fateful day and I was asked to come out to attend a call for my son. When I reached the landline phone, there was a Gorkha Army man on the other side who, in a very calm and composed manner, told me that my son had been martyred. It was shocking but at that moment, I resolved to remain strong and face it boldly. I went home, which was on the gurdwara premises, and told my wife and daughter-in-law Harjinder Kaur about this. Soon, there were people around to support us.”

He goes on, “Days after all rituals were almost over, everyone kept saying that I had not cried a bit and this could lead to mental trauma. They all tried to make me emotional but I did not shed a tear. I was even shut in a room for four days but I eventually convinced everyone that I could have developed an inner strength to bear it all. I have been a preacher all my life and giving speeches on the lives of martyr Sikh gurus and the martyrs of the Sikhism. Then on, I remember my son each day but sans any grief.”

Kirpal Singh says that the only regret he has in life was that he had to fight a long legal battle in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and even the Supreme Court to get a compensatory Class IV job for his younger son Kuldeep Singh. “Even as the state government now gives Rs 1 crore to a martyr’s family, we had got just Rs 50,000 as compensation in 1999. My daughter-in-law was offered a job but she was unwilling to take it and gave it in writing that it should instead be given to her younger brother-in-law. We had to move the court for this and it was a long drawn battle for justice, that too after losing a son,” he says.

Recalling one of the sweetest memories associated with his son, he says, “His unit was in a train from Pune to J&K a month ahead of the war when he had called up asking me to arrange for a meal for all of them. All of us, including the Sangat, prepared chhole-puris, packed them and took it to the train which they savoured on the way. After the unit reached its destination, his unit commander called up Daljit to thank him for the delicious meal and offered him a four-day vacation as a reward. Daljit came here and we spent such a fulfilling time with him then.”

Martyr Daljit Singh’s mother shares how he still maintains his son’s uniform, accessories and even the letters that he used to write back home. “We got his wife married to our younger son Joga Singh. They have two more daughters now. Daljit’s daughter Manpreet has recently moved to Canada after completing B.Com from here. She was five-year old when I told her about her father’s martyrdom. I told her that her ‘Chachu’ was her father now and she happily started calling him her ‘Papa’.”

Harjinder Kaur chose not to talk much. Wiping her tears constantly, she just murmurs, “It feels I have lived a double life”. She perhaps meant that it was not easy balancing oneself as a Kargil martyr’s widow and being remarried and settled with his brother.

The only regret of father

The martyr’s father Kirpal Singh says that the only regret he has in life is that he had to fight a long legal battle in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and even the Supreme Court to get a compensatory Class IV job for his younger son Kuldeep Singh. Even as the state government now gives Rs 1 crore to a martyr’s family, they had got just Rs 50,000 as compensation in 1999.