IPKF martyrs must be properly honoured
Today (March 24) is the 35th anniversary of the return of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) from its mission in Sri Lanka (Operation Pawan). It was India's first expeditionary force designed to end the ethnic conflict in the Emerald Isle, following the India-Sri Lanka Accord (ISLA) of July 29, 1987 — the date Op Pawan, the military component of the
ISLA, commenced.
Change of governments in both Sri Lanka and India resulted in double jeopardy: recall of the IPKF without being permitted to complete its mission. While the IPKF achieved a number of its military objectives in a brief 32 months, the political and diplomatic tracks failed to keep up. As many as 1,157 Indian soldiers sacrificed their lives and 3,009 of all ranks were wounded to maintain the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka built a memorial for the IPKF in Colombo; one was already there in Jaffna. At both memorials, on India's Republic and Independence Days, commemoration ceremonies are jointly held by Indian and Sri Lankan government officials. In January 2025, the Sri Lankan Army Chief, Lt Gen Lasantha Rodrigo, laid a wreath at the Jaffna memorial. Each time Indian dignitaries, including PM Narendra Modi, visit Colombo, they lay a wreath at the IPKF memorial.
But none of this happens at the National War Memorial (NWM), Delhi.
Today, some 150 Op Pawan veterans and their families will gather at the NWM for an Army HQ-designated 'silent felicitation'. Silent means no playing of the Last Post and Rouse by bugles to honour the martyrs, making the ceremony incomplete. Adjutant General's letter of January 14, 2025, says: "No felicitation ceremony will be permitted during conduct of above event."
This is, therefore, a private event organised by the IPKF veterans who have been fighting protracted battles with the military bureaucracy and the MoD for the last four years, involving three Army Chiefs — Generals Naravane, Pande and Dwivedi. The first two Generals are IPKF veterans. Letters written to the PM, the Raksha Mantri and the Military Adviser to RM have elicited no joy. A typical bureaucratic reply from the Integrated Defence Staff of the MoD received on October 17, 2024 reads: "The IPKF's case for official recognition is under active consideration. The case for earmarking a day for commemoration of Op Pawan was deliberated by a tri-service committee in detail which decided to maintain status quo."
The IPKF veterans saw a sliver of hope when the Army Chief, General Dwivedi, in an interview with ANI in February, mentioned with high emotion the LTTE ambush of 13 Sikh LI in Jaffna, when the company was wiped out; only one soldier was spared to tell the story.
Appeals made by the Indian Ex-servicemen Memorial League and senior officers for the official recognition of the IPKF have fallen on deaf ears. The NWM in Delhi is conspicuously incomplete in documenting the synopses of wars and skirmishes fought since 1947. Only two actions —Kargil 1999 (Op Vijay) and India-China Border Conflict 1962 — are inscribed on Rajasthan stone markers. On top of the Op Vijay marker, Op Pawan is inscribed, with two arrows pointing in opposite directions. But there is no Op Pawan marker or any other marker. This lapse must be corrected.
Last year in Dehradun, CDS Gen Anil Chauhan told IPKF veterans: "We have fought hundreds of operations; Op Pawan was only a minor operation." By no stretch of imagination can Op Pawan be called 'minor'. It was the longest, intensely fought campaign, where the IPKF suffered heavy casualties. Equally, it won several gallantry awards — UYSM, one; PVC, one; MVC, three; VrC 98; and 250 other bravery medals.
The last of the IPKF left Sri Lanka on board INS Magar from the Trincomalee harbour and arrived in Chennai (then Madras) on March 24, 1990. It was welcomed with banners bearing the ITKF (the Indian Tamil Killing Force). As the then PM VP Singh could not come to Madras to welcome the IPKF, they were flown in IL76 to Palam to be felicitated by him.
Those were difficult days, with Kashmir and Khalistan uprisings at their peak. The IPKF was quickly sucked in to counter them. The official recognition of Op Pawan was put on the back burner; so also, the After Action Report and Lessons Learnt. The report has not been declassified.
Why are the IPKF martyrs not being officially recognised and properly honoured and its veterans only allowed a silent felicitation? The reason is politics.
When the IPKF returned from Sri Lanka, a DMK government was in power in Tamil Nadu and a part of the coalition at the Centre. When the LTTE was defeated in 2009, the DMK was again in power. The domestic Tamil factor weighed heavily in India's Sri Lanka policy due to the DMK having 29 MPs in the UPA government.
Today, the ruling BJP is desperate to breach the DMK's cordon sanitaire in the south and secure a toehold after the 2026 elections. It is doing everything to win over the Tamils, in Singapore, Jaffna and south India. In January, the Jaffna Cultural Centre was renamed Thiruvalluvar Cultural Centre after the Tamil Nadu author of the legendary treatise, Kural. Jaffna Tamils objected to this. A compromise name was found: Thiruvalluvar Cultural Centre Jaffna.
The DMK apparently has not softened towards the IPKF. On November 25, 2024, Lt Gen KS Brar, GOC Dakshin Bharat Area, organised a Bravery Day commemoration in Chennai to honour, among others, a PVC winner in Sri Lanka, Maj P Rameshwaran, from Tamil Nadu. Chief Minister Stalin, who was invited as chief guest, neither accepted nor declined the invitation but did a no-show.
The DMK's hypocrisy during the last phase of the war in Sri Lanka is well known. For the time being, the IPKF will have to be content with a silent and unofficial commemoration. Abridging the commemoration protocol by not sounding the Last Post and Rouse is a big disservice to the IPKF martyrs.
