Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday interacted with the military personnel who participated in the recently-concluded Commonwealth Games at Birmingham, U.K. and later felicitated 25 winners of the ‘Veer Gatha’ contest held countrywide for school children last year.
On Mr. Singh’s interaction with the commonwealth participants, the Ministry said in a statement, “It is a commendable feat that 15 sportspersons from the three Services bagged six Gold, four Silver and five Bronze medals for India, out of the total 31 personnel who participated in the Games held between July 28 and August 8, 2022.
Veer Gatha was one of the projects organised as a part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, to inspire and spread awareness among children about the gallant deeds and sacrifices of the Armed Forces.
In the nation-wide contest, held between October 21 and November 20, 2021, over 8.04 lakh students from 4,788 schools were encouraged to share inspirational stories through essays, poems, drawings and multimedia presentations, the Ministry said in a statement. After several rounds of evaluation, 25 students were selected and declared as ‘SUPER-25’.
Academic credits
In the run-up to the Independence Day 2022 celebrations, Mr. Singh on Friday felicitated these SUPER-25 students with a cash prize of ₹10,000 each, a medal and a certificate. Speaking at the event, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said his Ministry would soon develop an institutional mechanism for awarding academic credits for certificates received under this initiative.
Congratulating the ‘SUPER-25’ winners, Mr. Singh commended their creativity, zeal and enthusiasm and said their entries for the contest beautifully captured the courage and sacrifices of freedom fighters. “These fearless freedom fighters and Armed Forces personnel, who have served their motherland, come from different parts of the country and belong to different religions. But, one thing that is common among them is their love for India. They are bound by the common thread of patriotism,” he said.
Mr. Pradhan stated that to strengthen the sense of ‘responsibility towards the nation’ from an early age, the Education Ministry, in consultation with the Defence Ministry, would work to include the valour of soldiers and India’s Veer Gatha in the last 75 years into the school curriculum and textbooks. Mr. Pradhan suggested renaming the contest to ‘Sena Super 25’ in the honour of the soldiers, the statement added.
