Twenty-two years after her son laid down his life in a counter-insurgency operation in Manipur, the 80-year-old mother of Shaurya Chakra awardee Assistant Commandant Vivek Saxena has offered to return the gallantry medals and monetary honours conferred in his name. The offer, made at a public grievance camp in Lucknow, reflects the family’s exhaustion after two decades of unfulfilled official assurances of land and a memorial.
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 must still endure humiliation while seeking a plot of land, the State should take back the Shaurya Chakra, the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry and the associated honour money. She has also sought an audience with President Droupadi Murmu and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Vivek Saxena, of 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 had joined the BSF on 6 March 2000. Official records state that troops came under heavy fire from underground militants occupying dominating heights; Saxena sustained bullet injuries and died on the spot. The Government of India later awarded him the Shaurya Chakra and the President’s Medal for Gallantry posthumously. His next of kin were recorded at Krishnalok-1, Banthra, Lucknow.
According to the family, the administration had promised land under the rural quota and a memorial park after his death. In 2016, then Lucknow District Magistrate Raj Shekhar took cognisance of the matter, accepted applications across departments and directed the Additional District Magistrate to complete an inquiry within 15 days and begin the process of allotment and commemoration. Those directions did not produce a conclusive outcome.
The file later stalled on 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 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, raising the question of why residency was being reopened after decades of official correspondence at that location.
The delay was not confined to land. The monetary award linked to the Shaurya Chakra reached the family only in 2024, more than two decades after the citation. Relatives allege that the file moved from desk to desk for months as verification was repeatedly deferred. At the tehsil camp, the family further alleged dismissive treatment, including remarks that they would continue to wait as they had for years.
Savitri Saxena said she no longer has the strength, at the age of 80, to keep circulating among government offices. “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 directed officials to examine the grievances and work towards a resolution within a week. Whether that instruction will close a case that has already outlasted two decades of files, affidavits and assurances remains to be seen. The family’s plea is no longer only for land. It is for the State to decide whether a gallantry award retains meaning when the mother of the man who earned it is still asked to prove that she belongs.
