In 2014, politicians across the world were stunned to hear from their embassies in New Delhi that a man, once a humble chaiwala, is becoming the prime minister of India. Narendra Damodardas Modi had made the most of the opportunity he got.
Eight years later, however, another Modi with a similar humble background, found refuge in a faraway land due to lack of opportunities in his state. Son of a panipuri seller, Summy Prakash Bhai Modi is a two-time national champion in Equestrian. He was forced to leave Gujarat because of poverty, and get enrolled as a rifleman in Assam Rifles.
Denied job or sponsorship in Gujarat, Modi’s journey from Ahmedabad to Shillong was not an easy one. His friend got him in touch with a retired Colonel, who told him that the Army, especially the Assam Rifles, sponsor sportspersons. Modi took the chance and got it.
But, he did not get any sponsorship after 2019.
“I had no horse to ride. Plus, there was need for sports medicines. Who would pay for that?” said Sunny, who is in his early twenties.
His father is no more and he helps his mother run a small panipuri streetside stall. The income during the Covid-19 period has been almost zero as people stayed away from street food for the past two years in Gujarat.
“Who would spend Rs 8 lakh on me? None would. The retired colonel (G.M. Khan) who helped me was himself an Asian gold medallist,” he said.
He was also helped by the Reliance group twice.
He said some of his friends told him they would pay Rs 1 lakh each so that he can attain his dream. But that, too, did not materialise.
Assam Rifles gave him hope.
Mukesh Kumar Mundotiya from Rajasthan, too, has an interesting story. When he was 10, his family was expelled from the village in Sikar district in Rajasthan because of land dispute, and the land was taken away.
Mukesh's brother and two sisters are married. But he has taken a vow not to tie the knot till he gets back his land.
“How can I forget that my studies came to a halt as we were all expelled from the village,” Mukesh said. His father had given money to the sarpanch, he said, to get back the land. “Sarpanch took the entire money and did nothing. I took loan from banks to get my sisters married off,” Mukesh said.
He continued his studies in the new village. He worked as a daily wager, like his father, and managed to complete his graduation. Mukesh then started giving tuitions.
There were many from the village who had joined the Army, and it attracted Mukesh, too. “Working in the northeast is more challenging for a youth from a desert, like me,” the rifleman said.
But the bigger 'war' would come later in his life. “I will take back my land from the villagers at any cost.”
Assam Rifles, known as sentinels of the northeast, have women, too, in their ranks who have similar distress stories to share. One of them is Padmini Solanki.
The 30-year-old from Buldana, Maharashtra, was tortured by her husband, who, too, is in the Army. But she refuses to divulge more details. “If I take the name of my husband's regiment, then the Army would be maligned, not he.”
She is an Arts graduate, and the marriage was a culmination of a whirlwind romance. She was denied food at her in-law’s home and she cites that and the torture as reasons to seek divorce.
When she returned home to escape from her husband's torture, her parents cold-shouldered her. “Our society is patriarchal. So, my parents asked me to go back to my torturous husband. I refused and told them I would manage on my own without their help,” Padmini said.
What worried her more was that she had two daughters, and she wanted to set them an example. “If I cannot resist it, my daughters would not be able to do it if they are faced with the same situation one day,” she said.
The torture is now a thing of the past as she has enrolled with the Assam Rifles and is now a jawan.
In the northeast, whenever she meets struggling girls, she gives her example and says, “Come out like me and live a life like me. Nothing is impossible for a woman to achieve today.”
In fact, she asks her friends to take on the torturing husband. “If a man marries a woman, it does not mean that he would treat his wife like a slave,” Padmini said.
Her voice resonates with the women in the northeast. At Ukhrul in Manipur, Phundrumyar Lungleng, who is married and has two children, and her sister Apem Lungleng, who is yet to married, cracked the exam. They are now being trained at the Dimapur training centre of Assam Rifles.
Phundrumyar is a Thangkul Naga and she joined the Army to earn a steady income. The small land they have could not cultivate enough rice or vegetables to sustain the family.
Poverty was not the only tragedy in her life. Phundrumyar lost her two-and-a-half-month-old daughter to a fever last year. She was at the training centre and was entitled to get the six-month post-pregnancy leave only after passing out of the training centre, post which she would be inducted. She chose not to wait for another year, and left the newborn with her sister and joined the training to save her job. She could not return home when fever gripped her daughter.
“None of our family members were tested Covid positive,” Phundrumyar said when asked about the fever. “The baby had undetected fever.”
Ukhrul is a malaria-prone area, though. And also a terrorist hub. But, thankfully, Phundrumyar is yet to get any threats for joining the Army.
Director General of Assam Rifles Lt Gen P.C. Nair told THE WEEK, “Such instances show how Assam Rifles has become a tool for development and upliftment for not only the people of the northeast but entire India.
“A few stories of some determined youths exemplify their motivation to not just join Assam Rifles against all odds but also the will to excel. Two stories of two Mahila soldiers are each from Manipur and Maharashtra who passed out from Assam Rifles Training Centre & School, Dimapur, recently make us understand how these two young women faced with immense domestic adversity took it upon themselves to join the Assam Rifles. Equally touching is the story of two men recruits of Assam Rifles who also passed out from Assam Rifles Training Centre & School. These are stories that would stand as inspiration for many more of our youth to join the Assam Rifles.”
