Commander Mohinder Singh - Sikhs The Supreme

It was a unique achievement, because it was the first time Indian climbers approached the peak from Chinese side under the command of commandant of ITBP S. Mohinder Singh of village Rajpura, distt. Hoshiarpur, who scaled the peak on May 7 and May 10, 1996. Thus he earned the distinction of being the first conqueror of Mt. Everest from China side, which is much harder than the Nepal side from where most expeditions scaled the peak. But this feat went unnoticed and The Mighty Sikhs / 145 un-rewarded due to rapid political changes in New Delhi. When he left home for the expedition it was Narsimha Rao as our prime minister, when he set his foot on the peak it was Atal Behari Vajpayee as our prime minister and when he came back as victor it was Deve Gowda as our prime minister. So no one thought of rewarding him with Arjuna Award, Padmashree or Padma Bhushan. This is unbecoming and very unfair to those who take risk of lives to bring glory to their country.

He also led the joint venture of Indian Mountaineering Foundation, (IMF) and Govt. of Mongolia to scale the "Jaunli" peak in Garhwal region at the height of 21,760 feet and many other Himalayan peaks. Under cultural programme, Govt. of Mongolia honoured him in 1995 with her highest civilian award "KHAN GARID".

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