July, 25 :     July 18, 1999, 2 am Duty calls at Akhnoor. The battle for Kargil is at its decisive stage as the army launches Operation Rakshak III. Lance Naik Dilip Singh Lingwal of 03 Grenadiers is ordered by his commanding officer to wade through the freezing ice-layered waters of the Manawar Tawi and fetch the grenades and other ammunition kept on the other bank of the cruel river. Lingwal had been fighting the enemy, braving nature's fury at 10,000 feet above sea level, -50° Celsius for over a month. He jumped into the river for his motherland never to resurface again. The search for Lingwal continued for 72 hours, but his body was never found. Three days later he was declared dead. As the nation readies to celebrate the Kargil victory on Wednesday, Lingwal's widow sits on a fast-unto-death in Indore, despair written on her face. A year later, after the promises have been made, Shobha Lingwal has to prove to the government that her husband indeed died for the nation. The Madhya Pradesh government insists that she must produce original death certificates and proof issued by the army to verify whether Dilip Singh Lingwal died in action. Or else she cannot be paid her compensation of Rs 10 lakh. 'My husband has given his life so that his countrymen could sleep peacefully at night. We were only married for five years - my husband went to the battlefield and left me a widow with two infants,' says Shobha. 'They failed to trace my husband's body. I did not complain. But when the authorities of the same soil for which my husband died insults me everytime by asking for the original death certificate, I cannot bear the humiliation,' she adds, her eyes welling up. Chief minister Digvijay Singh had promised a compensation of Rs 10 lakh and a government job to the families of Kargil martyrs from Madhya Pradesh. Shobha has been offered a job at the Indore city corporation by Mayor Kailash Vijaywargiya. But that, too, is only word of mouth. 'They keep tormenting me by saying they need to verify the documents given by the army authorities,' Shobha alleged. 'My husband was a soldier, not a fraud. He died for his country and, being his wife, I have not been able to see his body. I wasn't even privileged enough to cry over my husband's dead body and people ask me for verification. Verification of what?' On September 15, 1999 a death certificate was issued by commanding officer B.B. Patnaik confirming Lingwal's death. It said: 'Certified that number 2681429W, rank Lance Naik, name Dilip Singh Lingwal, Unit 03 Grenadiers has been swept away by flash floods and got drowned on July 18, 1999 while performing operational duty.' But that wasn't enough to satisfy the government. 'The commanding officer had asked my husband to get the ammunition kept on the other bank of the river. The river was flooded and he was swept away. Now what does the government expect? Where will I get his body from to prove that he died for the country,' says Shobha. Army chief Gen. V.P. Malik had also issued a certificate on December 16, 1999 to recognise Lingwal's sacrifice. But the Madhya Pradesh Sainik Kalyan Board and the state government are not convinced that Lingwal sacrificed his life for the country. The state government had directed district administration officials to get the original death certificates and documents from Shobha for verification. Last afternoon, after she launched her indefinite hungerstrike, district officials rushed to ask her to present the original documents at the collector's office. Shobha herself did not go but office-bearers of a local NGO, Mahila Shakti Sangathan, produced the documents at collector Manoj Shrivastava's office on her behalf. NGO spokesperson Seema Reji later told reporters that the authorities have not confirmed whether they would be handing over the compensation to Shobha. Additional district magistrate Manish Singh said the documents, along with the verification report, were sent to the state government last evening and Shobha Lingwal will most likely be given the money. As Shobha wages her lonely battle, her two toddlers try to console their weeping mother. 'Don't cry, Ma. Brave children don't cry,' says four-year-old Avinash as his brother Ajay, a year younger, climb their mother's lap to wipe the tears away.