Gautam Gambhir: Call me whatever you want, I'll always speak for the army

A few days after the April 24 attack on the CRPF by Naxals in Sukma, Chhatisgarh, cricketer Gautam Gambhir had announced that he would be paying the educational expenses of the children of all the 25 slain personnel. The attack had shocked the country, and Gambhir, who has often said that his first love is the forces, not cricket, also donated his Man of the Match award money to the families of the martyred personnel on May 9, when the Kolkata IPL team beat Delhi.

The cricketer's team now says they've made some progress on that project - they've been able to contact 16 of the 25 families, and have visited five in North India. Establishing contact with the rest has been a challenge because of outdated contact information and remote locations, and they are asking the CRPF to facilitate contact so the money can be transferred to them soon. Once they've all been contacted and their details taken by his team, Gambhir plans to speak to them and get them down to Delhi as well.

Talking about Gambhir's endeavour, the CRPF spokesperson tells us, "We appreciate Gambhir's efforts and we thank him for helping the families of Sukma martyrs." It's a daunting project, but Gambhir says he hopes he'll be able to provide for them and to do something for the defence forces. However, the cricketer also has strong opinions on how little civilians, especially in the biggest cities, understand or engage with conflict and the uniformed forces, and how that leads to a great deal of uninformed commentary.

You've always said your first love was the forces, but what prompted you to take up this responsibility after the Sukma attack?I had always wanted to do something for the defence forces, and after the attack on the CRPF personnel, I saw the picture of two girls, daughters of one of the slain men, in a newspaper, and I decided to try and help them. I have a three-year-old daughter myself… Hopefully, I'll be able to do this lifelong.

Did you have any apprehensions about the size of the project you'd taken on?Not at all - I have no doubt that I'll be able to do this. I hope to do something more in the future too. I've always wanted to do something for the defence forces - I've always said that the Army always has been my first love. It's about what they do selflessly for the country.

Why is it important for you that people know you're following up on this?I don't feel like talking about it so much - it's more about doing something. Sometimes, it's (these kind of initiatives) all about talk. For me, it's about delivering. In fact, every Indian should try and do something for the forces, this should come from the heart and it should be a part of all our lives.

Do you think the common person, especially the urban civilian, is aware of conflict in the country and where and what the defence forces are currently engaged in?I don't think so. If that were the case, they would’ve been getting a lot more respect than they normally get or how much they’ve gotten over the years. People start blaming or questioning people from the military, the Army… They are the people who selflessly put their lives at risk to protect ours. Even if it’s not made public, people should not raise questions like these without understanding the situation they're in or what they go through. People don't step out of their homes, they find it difficult to go for vacations for long durations when they have to stay away from home. These people (military and paramilitary personnel), they live in impossible conditions - in Siachen, in Kashmir, in

Chhattisgarh

– putting their lives at risk to serve their country. People say, no one told them to join the forces - this is how you take them for granted? I always say, try to put yourself in that situation. When I think of being in that situation, leaving my family, my home, my daughter, and not being sure when or if I’ll get to see them again… In extreme conditions, sometimes they have to take extreme action, and we can't question them just like that.

Gautam Gambhir

Views like the ones you express about the forces on social media are often described as 'nationalistic' or 'right-wing'. How do you react to that?Call me whatever you want, I'll always speak for the Army. Without understanding the extreme conditions they're in, you can't question the extreme action they take. People are quick to form opinions online, but they’re also quick to change them. If you have an opinion, stand by it and see it through. I stand by what I put up.

You say people should understand the conditions in which the forces live and fight- was there a particular visit that made an impact on you?As I said, the armed forces always have been my first love. But in the IPL, we were playing a match in Raipur and got to visit a CRPF camp. You can't imagine the extreme conditions they live in. It was 50 degrees Celsius, and in that heat, they had to carry heavy loads on their backs for 30km - no AC, no coolers. And then there's the pressure, they have to be alert all the time. And despite the conditions, the pressure, they do this selflessly, for their country, to protect us.

A small country like Israel has compulsory military training. But countries like India, that are so much bigger, have no compulsory military training, so people don't understand how the military functions, they have no knowledge of how it works, no respect for it. Perhaps our lives have become too comfortable in the cities – there should be compulsory military training to help people understand what the forces do. We should all do something for the forces.