New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday greeted the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on its 82nd Raising Day, saying the paramilitary force is at the forefront of keeping the nation safe.
“Greetings to all CRPF personnel on the 82nd Raising Day of this outstanding force. The CRPF is at the forefront of keeping our nation safe. The courage and professionalism of this force are widely admired,” the prime minister tweeted.
He further wished the force achieve greater heights in the coming years.
Meanwhile, Union minister Nityanand Rai on Monday recalled the valour and sacrifice of the CRPF personnel outnumbered during an attack by heavily armed Chinese troops in 1959 in Hot Springs in Ladakh, which is one of the friction points in the current Sino-India standoff.
Rai, the union minister of state for home, was speaking here while officiating as the chief guest of the 82nd Raising Day celebrations of the Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) headquarters here.
The CRPF has a rich history of valour and sacrifice…and on October 21, 1959, it showed that in Hot Springs in Ladakh when the Chinese attacked, Rai said.
“What a coincidence. Whenever China attacks, its strength is huge and ours is less…but China has always suffered the consequences,” he said, but did not elaborate.
He said 10 CRPF personnel sacrificed their lives in Hot Springs, and the Chinese army had to suffer a “big damage.” Similarly, he said the CRPF defended the country at Sardar Post in Gujarat when a small team of the force repulsed an attack by a 3,000-strong army contingent of Pakistan in 1965.
“Pakistan would shake with fear whenever it would recall this incident,” Rai said.
The minister praised the force for ensuring the security of the country as he said without security there can be no peace, no development and no unity.
He said under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah terrorism and Naxalism were being wiped out in the country.
In the last six months, 150 terrorists have been killed and 4-6 terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen have been eliminated from Kashmir, he said. Rai said terrorists should know they will have to either change their ideology or will be wiped out by joint security forces like the CRPF, the army and the Jammu and Kashmir police.
He also recalled the 2019 Pulwama attack on a CRPF convoy in which 40 personnel were killed, and said the prime minister then had declared this sacrifice of the troops will not go in vain.
“The force went into Pakistan and killed the terrorists and Pakistan just kept watching. India did what it wanted to do,” the minister said in a reference to IAF’s air strikes in Balakot after the Pulwama attack.
During the course of his speech, the minister made an apparent error while referring to the history of the CRPF.
He said the country’s first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel gave the flag or colours to the force on July 27 in recognition of the good work done by it in aligning all the princely states with India post independence. However, an official pointed out that the CRPF was given the President’s colours by Sardar Patel on March 19, 1950.
After Independence, it was rechristened the CRPF on the enactment of the CRPF Act on December 28, 1949 by the country’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
The 3.5-lakh strong Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) is the country’s largest paramilitary force. (Agencies)
