The Param Veer Spirit
What Connects All 21 Heroes - And How We Carry Their Legacy Forward
From Major Somnath Sharma in 1947 to Colonel Santosh Babu in 2020, what connects India's 21 Param Vir Chakra recipients across 73 years? They came from different regions, religions, and regiments, but they shared something eternal - the Param Veer Spirit. This final lesson explores that spirit and asks: how do we carry it forward in our own lives?
The Common Thread
Twenty-one men. Seven decades. Different wars. Different weapons. Different terrains.
Major Somnath Sharma directed mortar fire at Badgam airfield in 1947. Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav scaled Tiger Hill in 1999. Colonel Santosh Babu fought with stones and fists at Galwan in 2020.
They came from Punjab and Tamil Nadu, from Rajasthan and Jharkhand, from Kashmir and Nagaland. They were Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian. They served in infantry, armor, engineers, air force.
Yet something connected them - something that made each of them, in their defining moment, choose certain death over retreat, duty over survival, honor over self.
What is this connection? What is the Param Veer Spirit?
The Unchanging Core
They Chose to Be There
Every PVC recipient was a volunteer. India has never had conscription. These were men who chose to serve.
More than that, in their defining moments, many volunteered again - for the dangerous mission, for the assault team, for the forward position. Captain Vikram Batra volunteered for Point 4875 after already capturing Point 5140. Major Shaitan Singh chose to command the isolated Charlie Company at Rezang La. Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav volunteered for the Ghatak Platoon.
They didn't just accept danger. They sought it.
They Knew the Cost
These were not naive men who didn't understand death. Many had seen comrades fall. They knew exactly what they were risking.
2Lt Arun Khetarpal saw his tank on fire and knew what continuing to fight meant. Lance Naik Albert Ekka felt bullets enter his body and kept charging. Naib Subedar Bana Singh climbed through a blizzard at 21,000 feet knowing that the cold alone could kill.
They chose anyway.
They Thought of Others
Perhaps the most common thread: in their final moments, they thought not of themselves but of comrades.
Yogendra Singh Yadav kept climbing because "if I stopped, everyone behind me would die." Major Somnath Sharma's last radio message was about his men's position, not his own wounds. Lieutenant Manoj Kumar Pandey's last words were "Na Chodnu" - don't leave them.