Gadchiroli attack: what awards?

After 26/11 we all saw the sheer madness that enveloped families of slain policemen to get their departed beloved ones Kirti Chakras and Shaurya Chakras.
Family after family poured their hearts out to the media demanding, you cannot use a lighter word, that their relative displayed bravery of the highest order and deserved whatever chakra the government was doling out.
What did they exactly do? Die at the hands of two crazed Pakistanis. Did they kill anybody? Not till the NSG commandos came in. And of course brave Tukaram Omble who deserved his award.

A day after the naxals, almost 200 strong, armed with assault rifles and in guerilla war formation, mowed down 18 policemen, there is eerie silence.
The state government and the police set-up do not have enough courtesy or thought to send a fax to newspaper offices naming the brave 18. I’m saying brave because these cops, heavily outnumbered almost 10 is to one, fought for four long hours, took bullets all over their bodies and then finally departed like heroes. In the process these cops also killed 15 naxals.

But would they get any award? You bet they won’t because they are tribals from some of the state’s most backward districts and except for joining the police force or the naxal army, they don’t have much of a choice. The press will move on to the next event since unlike a Taj or a Trident, NGOs never come forward to light candles and hold fashion shows in the memory of naxal victims in Gadchiroli. So if there are no candle light vigils or skin-showing ramp walks, then there isn’t much meat in there for the television channels.

So Gadchiroli will be forgotten till the naxals think up their next move to rub mud on conceited faces like that of our all-knowing P Chidambaram. And we will continue giving awards to cops for dying at the hands of the enemy rather than for killing them.