22 Years After Son’s Sacrifice, BSF Martyr’s Mother Offers to Return Shaurya Chakra Over Unfulfilled Promises

The 80-year-old mother of Shaurya Chakra awardee Assistant Commandant Vivek Saxena has offered to return the gallantry medals and monetary honours awarded in her son’s name, saying the family has spent more than two decades seeking, without success, a promised plot of land and a memorial. The offer was made at a public grievance camp in Lucknow, where Savitri Saxena said the repeated delays and fresh demands for proof of domicile had left the family exhausted.

Savitri Saxena, accompanied by her elder son Ranjit Saxena, attended the Sampurna Samadhan Diwas held on Saturday, 6 September, at the Sarojininagar tehsil. She told officials that if a martyr’s family had to continue facing humiliation while trying to secure land, the State should take back the Shaurya Chakra, the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry and the accompanying honour money. The family has also sought an audience with President Droupadi Murmu and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Vivek Saxena, who served with the 2nd Battalion of the Border Security Force, was killed on 8 January 2003 during a joint operation near Sajik Tampak in Manipur. Born on 20 December 1973, he joined the BSF on 6 March 2000. According to official records, troops came under heavy fire from underground militants who were occupying dominating heights. Saxena sustained bullet injuries and died on the spot. He was later awarded the Shaurya Chakra and the President’s Medal for Gallantry posthumously by the Government of India. His next of kin were recorded at Krishnalok-1, Banthra, Lucknow.

For the family, the issue has never been limited to medals and citations. They say that after Saxena’s death, the administration promised them land under the rural quota and also assured them a memorial park. In 2016, then Lucknow District Magistrate Raj Shekhar took cognisance of the matter, accepted applications sent across departments and directed the Additional District Magistrate to complete an inquiry within 15 days and begin the process of allotment and commemoration. But those directions did not lead to a final resolution.

The matter later became entangled in questions of domicile. Officials asked the family to establish that they were original residents of Uttar Pradesh and sought an affidavit stating where Savitri Saxena had lived before her marriage. Ranjit Saxena said the family had grown up and studied in the state and pointed out that a memento of his brother stands at Air Force Station Memora. He also produced an old receipt showing that the Uttar Pradesh government had earlier issued a cheque of Rs 75,000 to the same address, asking why residency was being questioned again after decades of official correspondence at that location.

The delay, the family said, was not confined to the promised land. The monetary award linked to the Shaurya Chakra reached them only in 2024, more than 20 years after the citation. Relatives allege that the file moved from desk to desk for months and that verification was repeatedly deferred. At the tehsil camp, they also complained of dismissive remarks, including that they would continue to wait as they had for years.

Savitri Saxena said that at 80, she no longer has the strength to keep going from one office to another. “If even after the martyrdom of my son we must face humiliation for a piece of land, the government should take back the Shaurya Chakra, the medals and the honour money,” she said, according to accounts of the hearing.

Sub-Divisional Magistrate Abhishek Kumar Singh has directed officials to examine the grievances and work towards a resolution within a week. Whether that instruction will bring closure to a case that has already stretched across more than two decades of files, affidavits and assurances remains uncertain. For the Saxena family, the demand is now not only for land and a memorial, but for recognition that the honours awarded to Vivek Saxena should not be separated from the treatment of the family he left behind.