Mumbai: India's first World Cup winning skipper Kapil Dev, who was commissioned into the Territorial Army (TA) as an honorary lieutenant colonel in 2008, urged the media not to present sensational stories to audiences but to show stories of youngsters who sacrificed their lives for our country.
Kapil's comments came after he attended Atharva Foundation's special initiative to pay tribute to the Indian armed forces along with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Vikram Gokhale, Aftab Shivdasani, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Rohini Hattangadi here on Wednesday.
Talking about the Atharva Foundation's initiative where dignitaries felicitated Indian soldiers and their families, the legendary cricketer said: "I felt really happy to be a part of this great initiative because here we felicitated and had conversation with our real heroes. People involved with this imitative are really passionate people."
"I think it's like a mission and we have to carry forward this mission and I think lot of things depends upon media that how much preference they want to give to such initiatives through their broadcasting.
"I would like to urge media that we shouldn't present sensational stories for the audience instead of that, we should show stories of youngsters who sacrificed their lives for the country," he added.
With three-time champions India preparing for the final of the ongoing ICC Under19 World Cup against Australia on Saturday, Kapil hoped that the Prithvi Shaw-led side returns with the trophy.
"I hope that Under 19 team will come back winning World Cup," he said.
When asked what advice he would like to give the youngsters of the country, he said, "I feel youngsters of our country should at least, once think about joining the security forces because your thought to join security forces is really important, afterwards other things automatically follow in that journey"
Talking about the Atharva Foundation's initiative where dignitaries felicitated Indian soldiers and their families, Rohini Hattangadi said, "Today is a very important day because we are felicitating our Indian soldiers who sacrificed their lives to protect us and our country."
"I feel fortunate to be part of this initiative. I want to congratulate Atharva Foundation who has organised such huge initiative. I think we don't need to join our army to show our patriotism. We can express our patriotism by doing small things like keeping our surroundings clean and helping each other in crisis."