Saga of a Braveheart : Lt. colonel Ajit Bhandarkar by Shakuntala Bhandarkar.

Saga of a Braveheart : Lt. colonel Ajit Bhandarkar 

 by Shakuntala

Ajit Vasudev Bhandarkar is one of those Brave hearts who made that supreme sacrifice and achieved martyrdom while upholding the safety, security and integrity of his  fellow countrymen and in service of his revered motherland. The saga of brave hearts must and should be told to the grateful nation, in whose honour they laid down their lives. The essence of what martyrdom means to the Indian ethos and how ‘Veergati’ has become reverential to the Indian culture is exemplified in the grand old epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, which narrate the saga of martyrdom of hundreds of thousands of warriors on the battlefield that was fought for righteousness. Who better to script such a saga for one of the great Braveheart’s of India, Shaurya Chakra, Lieutenant Colonel Ajit V Bhandarkar, than his beloved wife, Mrs. Shakuntala Ajit Bhandarkar, a par excellence Veer Nari and an inspiration personified.

The book - The Saga of a Braveheart : Lt. Col. Ajit Bhandarkar, Shaurya Chakra, written by Mrs. Shakuntala Bhandarkar, chronicles the life and works of her husband, Ajit Bhandarkar. The author has drawn on a very wide ranging source of information and well researched references, consultation with friends, colleagues, associates of her husband and relied on other relevant material, which she has painstakingly researched and collated, to script an extraordinary biography and narrate the saga of her martyred husband, Lt Col Ajit Bhandarkar. The journey traces the saga of Ajit Bhandarkar from his birth in Mumbai in December 1960 to his childhood growing days  in Bangalore to his days in the Sainik School, Bijapur, where he spent seven formative years of his life from age 9 to 16. It is such a great honour and pleasure for me and all my batchmates that Lt Col. Ajit Bhandarkar was from our batch and he joined the Sainik School Bijapur with all our  batchmates in June 1970 and passed out of the school in 1977. Mrs Bhandarkar has written about the days that Ajit spent in our school and for doing so she has constantly interacted with a number of our batch mates - including yours truly, to collect information and know about Ajit’s time in the school, where he rose up to the highest rank - the School Captain. Ajit then joined the National Defence Academy, Pune and passed out from there with flying colours to join the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, where he was commissioned into the armed forces. Mrs Bhandarkar seamlessly traverse the biographical sketch of nearly four decades of the life span of her beloved husband, Ajit Bhandarkar (1960-1999), including covering that highly emotional supreme sacrifice moment leading up to the ‘ANTIM PAG’ of his life. Colonel Ajit Bhandarkar’s coffin, draped in the tiranga - the national flag, was ceremonially transported from the spot where he was martyred in action in Jammu and Kashmir to the cremation grounds in Bangalore where the grieving nation led by the brave hearts wife, Mrs Shakuntala Bhandarkar and their two beloved sons - Nirbhay and Akshay aged 7 and 5, and other friends, families, men in uniform and several other distinguished dignitaries had assembled for bidding an antim farewell with complete military honours to the martyr and praying for his supreme soul to rest in eternal peace in the heavenly abode to which Lt. Col. Ajit Bhandarkar had transcended. 

When the nation was celebrating the 20 years of the victory of the Kargil war on 26th July  - Kargil Diwas, in 2019, the author of the subject book - Mrs Shakuntala Bhandarkar, while joining the nation in this celebration with sombre remembrance, recalled the supreme sacrifice that her husband had made just three months - 30th October 1999, after that historic Kargil victory in July that year. Her husband - Shaurya Chakra, Ajit Bhandarkar, had lived up to that extraordinary oath that he and all military officers take while crossing that last step - Antim Pag . ANTIM PAG’ is embarked on a granite slab at the Indian Military Institutions and the Gentleman & Lady Cadets pass over it during the prestigious Passing Out Parade (POP) to become a commissioned officer in the Indian Army, to serve the nation until the peril of their life. It is in fitness of things that the oath that the young officers take at the passing out parade at NDA and IMA, while crossing that Antim Pag is recalled here. “I …… do swear in the name of god that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of India as by the law established and that I will, as in duty bound, honestly and faithfully serve in the regular army of the union of India and go wherever ordered by land, sea or air and that I will observe and obey all commands of the president of the union of India, and the commands of any officer set over even to the peril of my life”. The last words typify the brave hearts in the Indian defence forces like  Lt. Col. Ajit Bhandarkar, whose saga has been brought to print by Mrs Bhandarkar.

It is heartening to note that Mrs Shakuntala Ajit Bhandarkar has chosen a special occasion and a befitting venue - National Military Memorial, Bangalore, to launch this inspirational book on the Kargil Diwas on 26th July 2021. It was on this day, 26th July, in 1999 that the Indian Army won an extraordinary victory by achieving a near impossible task of evicting the Pakistani armed forces from the Kargil peaks, which they had deceitfully occupied. The befitting reply and a bloody nose that our Braveheart Indian armed forces gave to the Pakistani is now a folklore. The Vijay Divas is therefore commemorated on 26th July every year to mark this historic victory occasion. The aftermath of the dreadful defeat that the Pakistani army faced at the Kargil war resulted in the Pakistanis accentuating the cross border terrorism by pushing in scores of terrorists into the Kashmir valley from the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. 

During Oct 1999, just three months after the Kargil war, Lt Col Ajit Bhandarkar was serving with 25 Rajputana Rifles, which was deployed in Poonch district of J&K. This was an area which was infested with the terrorists and Ajit Bhandarkar and his his troops had to undertake counter-insurgency operations on a regular basis. An intelligence input was received by Bhandarkar’s unit that terrorists were hiding in Faisalabad village in the Poonch district. On 30 October 1999, after assessing the situation and ascertaining the position of the terrorists in the area a decision was taken to launch an operation under the leadership of Lt Col Ajit Bhandarkar, who had volunteered to lead the operation. As planned, a cordon and search operation was launched in the suspected area to eliminate five hardcore terrorists who were hiding in the village. As the operation was underway, Lt Col Ajit spotted four militants escaping towards a nullah. He immediately swung into action and while chasing the terrorists he shot down one of them at point-blank range. However, one terrorist who was hiding inside the nullah fired indiscriminately and injured Lt Col Ajit grievously. Despite being injured, he moved ahead and lobbed a grenade on the militant. He then crawled forward and shot down another militant. His daredevil action resulted in the elimination of three hardcore terrorists. Unfortunately, Lt Col Ajit Bhandarkar succumbed to his injuries and died at the spot of action and was martyred. For this act of courage and supreme sacrifice, Lt Col Ajit Bhandarkar was awarded the “Shaurya Chakra” posthumously. Mrs Shakuntala has covered this emotional incident with utmost equanimity, drawing upon information, reference and so also her interactions with one of the Men, who was part of this operation and had worked with Lt Col Ajit Bhandarkar. 

Mrs Shakuntala Bhandarkar has painstakingly researched and scripted the saga of the Braveheart by reaching out to many people with whom Lt Col Ajit Bhandarkar was associated to ensure that the biography is based out of sound research and the outcome is something which is definitively destined to inspire generation next to pursue the path of the Braveheart. We the class buddies of Lt Col Ajit Bhandarkar, at the Sainik School Bijapur, are so fortunate and indeed extremely grateful to Shakuntala ji that in her research and to get to the minute details of the years that Ajit spent at the Sainik School Bijapur, she reached out to us and she continues to be in touch with us. I am particularly grateful to her for having shared the manuscript of this book before it was published for my edits and comments. Similarly she has also made it a point to get in touch with  course mates of Ajit Bhandarkar at the NDA and also at IMA to herald the saga of his bravery. One can understand how hard it must have been for her to relive the life of her beloved husband, with whom she spent ten years. What is so very touching is that she also contacted the jawan who was a part of the operation where her husband- Braveheart Ajit Bhandarkar, was martyred, to chronicle this part of the last saga of the Journey of her husband. 

Shakunthala Bhandarkar, having gone through long period of trials and tribulations of being a martyr’s wife, is very passionate about helping other martyrs’ families. She is a volunteer with the Vasantharatna Foundation for Art since its inception and has contributed immensely in conducting various events and activities for the families of martyrs. She is a source of inspiration to many war widows and she continues to exhibit an undying passion to serve the nation, an attribute which she has picked up for her martyr husband that she has passed it on to both her sons. Both Nirbhay and his younger brother Akshay have joined the armed forces and incidentally Capt Nirbhay Bhandarkar has joined his father’s unit after passing out from OTA Chennai, while his younger brother Akshay Bhandarkar has joined the Indian Navy after graduating as an Engineer. 

Shakuntala Bhandarkar’s statement; ‘Life is a journey and we cannot change destiny, Ajit was destined to die on the battlefield with his boots on, which every soldier dreams off. So, I am happy in a way, that he has achieved his dream and lived his life to the full as a frontline soldier’, sums up the saga of the brave heart Ajit Bhandarkar.

On 26th July, 2021 - Vijaya Diwas, The Saga of a Brave Heart :  Lt. colonel Ajit Bhandarkar, the book written by Shakuntala Bhandarkar will be released in Bangalore at the National Military Memorial, Bangalore. Please order your copies and promote this book so that the saga of Ajit Bhandarkar and several such brave hearts saga is known to the people of the country. 

Jai Hind.