On 23 February, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said that if the party comes to power, it will accord paramilitary personnel killed in the line of duty 'martyr' or 'shaheed' status.
Responding to a question on martyr status to jawans during an interaction with students at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, Gandhi said: "I agree with you. Paramilitary jawans don't get 'martyr' status. They should get it, and if we come to power, they will be accorded that status."
Gandhi further took a potshot at the government on Monday, 25 February, for not having accorded ‘shaheed’ status to the CRPF jawans killed in the Pulwama attack, blaming it on the “PM’s ego.”
Responding to Gandhi's statement on paramilitary forces being accorded the status of 'martyrs', news agency ANI quoted Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju as saying:
“Rahul Gandhi doesn’t know the rules and regulations, whoever sacrifices his life for the country is a martyr whether he is in Army or in Central Armed Forces.”
Is Rijiju's claim true?
According to an answer tabled by Rijiju in the Lok Sabha on 14 March 2017, the word 'martyr' is not used in reference to any casualties in the Indian Armed Forces.
The answer read:
“The Ministry of Defence informed that the word ‘Martyr’ is not used in reference to any of the casualties in Indian Armed Forces. Similarly, no such term is used in reference to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifle (AR) personnel who get killed in action or any operation.”
In 2016, Rijiju had told the Lok Sabha that while the Ministry of Defence does not use the word 'martyr' in relation to casualties, their families/next of kin are given full family pension under the Liberalised Pensionary Award (LPA) rules and lump sum ex-gratia compensation.
Meanwhile, in response to an RTI that was filed in December 2017, both the defence and home ministries said that the words 'martyr' or 'shaheed' were not used by either of them.
Speaking about the RTI, Information Commissioner Yashovardhan Azad had told PTI:
“The respondent from the Ministry of Defence stated that word ‘shaheed’ or ‘martyr’ is not used by the MoD. Instead the one used is ‘battle casualty’. The respondent from the Ministry of Home Affairs stated that in the MHA the word used is ‘operations casualty.”
The RTI had sought information on the meaning and detailed definition of the word 'shaheed' according to the law and Constitution.
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