Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday felicitated 25 winners of the 'Veer Gatha', a literary contest aimed at spreading awareness about the gallant deeds of armed forces personnel.
In the nationwide contest, over 8.04 lakh students from 4,788 schools were encouraged to share inspirational stories through essays, poems, drawings and multimedia presentations, the defence ministry said.
The contest took place between October 21 and November 20 last year. After several rounds of evaluation, 25 students were declared as 'SUPER-25'. Singh felicitated these SUPER-25 students with a cash prize of Rs 10,000 each, a medal and a certificate.
Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar, Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar and Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen BS Raju were also present on the occasion.
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In his comments, Singh commended the winners for capturing the courage and sacrifices of freedom fighters such as Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and Khudiram Bose and Gallantry award winners such as Major Somnath Sharma, Subedar Sanjay Kumar, Havildar Veer Abdul Hameed, Captain Vikram Batra, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Col Santosh Babu.
"These fearless freedom fighters and Armed Forces personnel, who have served their motherland, come from different parts of the country and belong to different religion," he said. "But, one thing that is common among them is their love for India. They are bound by the common thread of patriotism," he added.
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The defence minister also invoked Mahatma Gandhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Bhagat Singh, Ashfaqulla Khan and Lal Bahadur Shastri, urging the students to take inspiration from the lives of these eminent personalities.
"He exhorted the students to understand, through the stories of these personalities, the importance of striking a balance between bravery and wisdom," the defence ministry said in a statement.
(With PTI Inputs)
