Srinagar
Social media users in Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi hometown Namrup, an industrial town 480 km east of Guwahati, and elsewhere in Assam have proposed inviting and honouring the Major, who tied a Kashmir to a Jeep in Budgam district on April 9, for a “feat that has done us proud”, Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday.
Gogoi is an Ahom, the community that had ruled Assam for 600 years before the British annexed Assam in 1824. Borphukan was the Ahom general who defeated the Mughals at the Battle of Saraighat – billed the greatest naval battle ever on a river – on the Brahmaputra off Guwahati in 1671, the report said.
On Facebook, self-employed Abhijit Baruah said: “Asom gourab Major Leetul Gogoi Zindabad (long live Major Leetul Gogoi, pride of Assam)!”
Entrepreneur Shyam Kanu Mahanta wrote: “Such daredevilry can be only expected from descendants of Bir Lachit Borphukan. Proud of you Major Leetul Gogoi! Keep the flag flying high!”
However, the army officer’s parents – retired fertiliser plant employee Dharmeswar Gogoi and his wife Swarnalata Gogoi – have sought to be left alone because their son has “merely done his duty as is expected of all soldiers”.
Pertinently, Gogoi received a commendation certificate from the Indian army for his role in counter-insurgency operations on Monday.
