Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw Too Deserved a Farewell with Honour  

On 06 February 2022 as the nation mourned the passing away of Lata Mangeshkar who apart from a well-known singer of international repute was also an awardee of Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, the Central Government rightly so announced a two-day national mourning and a state funeral to the icon who had won the hearts of every Indian with her voice that will remain unparalleled in the history of the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a befitting honour to the legend flew down to Mumbai to pay his respects to the Bharat Ratna in Shivaji Park in Mumbai and attend the state funeral.

An established protocol exists for a state funeral which includes the draping of the mortal remains in the tricolour, flying of the national flag at half-mast and no official entertainment functions. This according to the home ministry guidelines is accorded to the death of the President, ex-presidents, the Prime Minister, Governors including Lieutenant Governors, union cabinet ministers, speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Chief Justice of the supreme court, Chief ministers and Bharat Ratna awardees and any person who has rendered exceptional service to the nation in any field.

However, no written protocol exists for the other awardees like the awardees of the Padma series of awards or the Jeewan Raksha Padak or the Dronacharya Award or the gallantry awards like Shaurya Chakra and the Sena Medal.

Any human irrespective of his or her designation or financial status deserves a decent farewell after completing the journey on this planet. But it would be impossible for any government the world over to ensure this for all its citizens.

The Indian Army has Assured Decent Last Rites Scheme (ADLRS) since May 2006, under which every retired soldier of the Army be it an Officer, Junior Commissioned Officer or a soldier is entitled for a decent farewell as a mark of respect to the services rendered by him or her to the nation.

As India enters its 75^th year of independence, it is high time that we frame a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to give a farewell with honour to the citizens who have been awarded various other awards like the Padma series of awards, the Jeewan Raksha Padak or the Dronacharya Award or the gallantry awards like the Shaurya Chakra and the Sena Medal.

All awardees have performed a dimension higher than any other ordinary citizen and they deserve a farewell with honour after they depart forever. It is a respect that the nation owes them for the exemplary work done by them, be it in any field.

The SOP so framed should be easy to implement and should be preferably at the district level. It should be mandated for every agency whose duties are included in the SOP. Also, part of the SOP should be compulsory live telecast of the funeral of those award winners included in the SOP on all the television channels of the country, so that apart from every citizen knowing about the life and the deeds of such eminent awardees, it also serves as a motivation to the youth of the country.

There would be some who would say that such a SOP is not practically feasible. But a simple analysis will tell that the numbers of such awardees are far and few and since they live all over the country, no undue burden will come on any one district administration to implement it, when framed. The outcome of such a SOP would be very beneficial for the country.

If the Indian Army has been successful in implementing the ADLRS, so can the civil administration successfully implement the SOP when it is framed. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Any SOP is implemented successfully when there is accountability attached to it. And when such a SOP is framed it will be acceptable to everyone across the political spectrum as the SOP would cover every awardee awarded by the central or the state government.

The central government should formulate a SOP for those awards which are awarded by the central government and the respective state government should formulate the SOP for the awards awarded by the state governments.

Such a SOP apart from according the honour due to any awardee will also obviate cases like deserving persons not getting an appropriate farewell with honour. Take the following two cases.

Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw, an awardee of Military Cross, Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan apart from being a distinguished Chief of the Army Staff who led India to a spectacular victory over Pakistan in the Indo-Pak War of 1971, did not get an appropriate farewell of honour when he passed away on 27 June 2008. So much so that neither the then Defence Minister nor the three Service Chiefs attended his funeral held in Wellington, Tamil Nadu.

Ramakant Achrekar, a Dronacharya Award and a Padma Shri award winner and the coach of the cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar, got no appropriate farewell with honour when he died on 02 January 2019 in Mumbai.

Both Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw and Ramakant Achrekar rightly deserved an appropriate farewell with honour for their exemplary services to the nation.

The nation is obligated to give a farewell with honour to all the awardees who have distinguished themselves in any field, irrespective of the political party in power in the centre or the state, and this can happen only when a written SOP is in place.

Each of the awardees deserve a farewell with honour.

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