'When's our birthday?'

That's what CRPF personnel are asking. The country's largest para-military force celebrates its Raising Day on a different date every year and its men are not happy

That's what CRPF personnel are asking. The country's largest para-military force celebrates its Raising Day on a different date every year and its men are not happy

What if you are asked to celebrate your birthday or anniversary on a different date every year? That's what the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) does.

It may sound bizarre, but the CRPF, the largest para-military force in the country with more than two lakh personnel, has forgotten its original 'birthday.' In the last sixty years it has celebrated the day whenever ordered to do so.

However, more bizarre are the reasons behind this flexi-birthday.

There is no official explanation as to why the force celebrates its anniversary or raising day on a different date every year. This year, the celebrations will take place on November 27. "Even this date was finalised after two changes. Every time the reason was unavailability of political leaders," said a CRPF official, wishing anonymity. Before finalising November 27, the force had proposed November 28 or 29.

Representative photo

Angry men

Meanwhile, the date confusion doesn't go down well with the personnel.

"It's a shameless act and we don't even know who to blame. This is the way our officers and politicians treat the nation's largest para-military force," said a CRPF havildar, posted at the force headquarters in New Delhi.

A senior official, wishing not to be quoted, revealed the interesting history behind the shifting birthdays. "The original date for celebrating the CRPF Raising Day is July 27. But CRPF units are deployed all over the country and in the month of July half of the country is either under the spell of intense heat wave or monsoon. It's difficult to celebrate the Raising Day in such bad weather so about 50 years back, senior officers in the force decided to organize a small ceremony on the original Raising Day followed by a big event in the last week of October, when the weather become stable. We started celebrating the day on October 31," he said.

But 25 years ago when Khalistani militants gunned down the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, the date automatically became an 'inauspicious day' for any official celebrations. More significantly, no political leader wanted to stay away from events that remembered the great leader.

Since then the CRPF Raising Day celebration is completely dependent upon the availability of the Home Minister and other political leaders.

The Other Side
The CRPF official, AK Chaturvedi, refused to comment but confirmed that this year the Raising Day will be celebrated on November 27 and Home Minister P Chidambaram is expected to be the chief guest at the event.u00a0