Kargil Hero Vikram Batra's Mother Kamal Kanta Batra Passes Away

Kargil war hero, Captain Vikram Batra's mother Kamal Kanta Batra passed away today in the afternoon. In 2014, Batra was running  for Parliament from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh as a candidate of the Aam Aadmi Party. In 1999, her son, Captain Vikram Batra, was killed in the Kargil War. He was 24. "Yeh dil maange more," he had declared famously in an interview  appropriating an advertising slogan at the time to convey the courage of the Indian soldier.

Vikram Batra was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military honour on 15 August 1999, the 52nd anniversary of India's independence. His father G.L. Batra received the honour for his deceased son from the President of India, the late K. R. Narayanan. To commemorate the 22 years of the sacrifice made by Batra, Army Commander Northern Command Lieutenant general Yogesh Kumar Joshi overflew the famous "Batra Top" in a Sukhoi-30 MKI and paid homage to the nation's hero from the sky. Joshi was also the then Commanding Officer of Batra. On the occasion of Parakram Diwas, Indian Government announced that its naming 21 largest unnamed islands of Andaman and Nicobar after the 21 Param Vir Chakra awardees. As a Param Vir Chakra Awardee, an island is named after Vikram Batra as Batra Island.