Rajnath Singh celebrates Diwali with troops at Sherathang near Nathu La

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh spent Diwali with Indian Army personnel at the Sherathang War Memorial near Nathu La in East Sikkim on Sunday, paying homage to soldiers who died on the frontier and telling those now posted there that the lamps lit in homes across the country burn because of their watch.

Sherathang lies close to Nathu La, the mountain pass on the border with Tibet at roughly 14,140 feet. Army Chief General Dhiraj Seth and other senior officers accompanied the Defence Minister, All India Radio reported.

Singh had announced the trip in advance and arrived earlier in the day, according to an update from the Sikkim government's Information and Public Relations Department that The Voice of Sikkim carried before the memorial programme.

What he told the troops

Addressing soldiers at the memorial, Singh offered Diwali greetings to them and their families and paid tribute to those commemorated there. "First of all, I would like to congratulate all of you and your family members on Diwali. I would also like to congratulate the martyrs of Sherathang War Memorial who have sacrificed their lives for us," he said, according to ANI.

He said people could light lamps at home only because of those sacrifices. "Friends, the Diwali lamps that we are able to light in our homes today, it is because of the sacrifice of our brave soldiers," ANI quoted him as saying. Later in the same address he added: "And because of you, the citizens of the country can sleep peacefully. Because of you, the Diwali lamps look even brighter."

Comparing the troops to a lamp whose light reached far beyond the ridge they stand on, he said: "I am standing here in Sherathang and I feel that all of you are like a single lamp. Your light is not limited to just Sherathang War Memorial. Your light is reaching every house in the country."

Singh also dwelt on discipline, saying that no matter how advanced technology becomes, it is of little use without discipline among the young, and that discipline remained the Army's greatest strength. He told the soldiers that their conduct, uniform, language and restraint shape how local people see the Army, and that it was their responsibility to keep the affection they enjoy in Sherathang and the villages around it.

He said war memorials such as Sherathang mark the bravery of young Indians for generations to come. Recalling the men honoured there, he noted that they had come from many parts of the country, including Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Assam. News On AIR reported that he also said such memorials would encourage the country's younger generation.

A memorial tied to 1967

The Sherathang War Memorial honours Indian soldiers who died defending the border in Sikkim. The area carries particular weight in military history because of the 1967 clashes between Indian and Chinese troops at Nathu La and Cho La, which remain a key chapter in the defence of the eastern frontier.

Bagdogra and Sukna on Diwali eve

The Sikkim visit follows a day of engagements in north Bengal. On Saturday, the eve of Diwali, Singh interacted with Indian Air Force personnel at Air Force Station Bagdogra and called for more attention to cyber resilience, information integrity, domain awareness and technology to deal with new kinds of threats, according to a Ministry of Defence statement released through PIB.

At Sukna near Siliguri, the headquarters of the Army's 33 Corps (Trishakti Corps), he reviewed operational preparedness along the Line of Actual Control in Sikkim, with briefings on border infrastructure, equipment and the use of emerging technologies. It was during the Bagdogra leg that he described the Northeast as India's first frontier rather than its last.

Festivals at the frontier

The Defence Minister has made a habit of marking major festivals with troops in the field. In 2024 he celebrated Diwali with soldiers at the Army's 4 Corps headquarters in Tezpur, Assam.

The Nathu La sector is one of the most closely watched stretches of the border in the eastern Himalaya, and the road from Gangtok to the pass also serves as a route for border trade and the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in season. Troops posted there face sub-zero temperatures, thin air and heavy snowfall through the winter months.