The Siachen War Memorial is a tribute to the solider who lost their lives protecting the Frozen frontiers of Siachen. But one Twitter user's remarks about the memorial got him schooled, with netizens questioning his "military watcher" skills, general knowledge and qualification. The user had thought soldiers were made to stand on the ladder above the memorial.
The claim
Reacting with strong criticism, Twitter user who goes by the name Ali Ahmed (aliahd66) quipped that "troops are not props for backdrop to photos" after seeing the soldiers on the ladder. He further said that "soldiers are not to be put to such indignity."
Surprisingly, he then tweeted that he'd spotted the same formation of soldiers on a ladder during Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's visit to the memorial. He "thought it was an overzealous formation commander bullshitting his way to the next rank. but it seems a routine. should be stopped, since Siachen is presumably still an op area where bullshit is avoidable, no?"
His tweet got the attention of many, who were quick to give the user lesson on the war memorial.
Fact check
International Business Times noticed the tweet and found the erroneous claims made by the user. Any user falling for the claims made in the tweet could simply go through the comments and reactions to know the truth.
The Siachen war memorial was constructed with the aim to pay homage to the warriors. The ladder on which soldiers are climbing with an Indian flag in the backdrop is a crucial aspect of the memorial, which encapsulates the true sense of the homage. On the ladder, it is written "Warriors go to Heaven."
The memorial structure has some inspiring words:
"Quartered in the snow.
Silent to remain.
When the clarion calls.
We will rise and march again."
Then, it goes on:
"To every man upon this Earth,
Death cometh sooner or later.
And how can man die better,
Than facing fearful odds.
For the ashes of his father,
And the temples of his Gods."
A simple web search on Google for Siachen war memorial will show the ladder from different angles. For anyone who hasn't even been to the memorial can instantly identify that those aren't real soldiers on a formation, rather just figures.
Upon realising his faux pas, the user apologised. He wrote: "the tweet that made me (in)famous. while my tweets usually manage views numbering in 2 digits, this ones crossed 50k making my haul from the day go into my twitter lifetime high of 6 digits. a social media gaffe with a silver lining. even so, apologies."
The evidence stands clear. Hence, IBTimes has arrived at the conclusion that the claims made by social media user about the Siachen war memorial are totally baseless and false.
