From the frozen heights of Kargil to the salt marshes of Sir Creek and the deck of INS Vikrant at sea — BJP MP Anurag Thakur marked Diwali 2026 with a heartfelt tribute to India's armed forces, calling every soldier and sailor his own family.

Writing in Hindi on Sunday, 8 November 2026, Thakur said: 'Those who protect the nation at its borders and within — the sentinels of the nation, the brave sons and daughters of Mother India — you are all my own. You are part of my family.' He added that every Diwali spent alongside soldiers — from the Himalayan cradle of Kargil, to Sir Creek on the sea-coast, to the naval embrace of INS Vikrant — has been unforgettable.

Three frontiers, one salute

The three locations Thakur names are not random geography — they map India's most watched military frontlines. Kargil, in the high-altitude sector of Ladakh, was the theatre of the 1999 India-Pakistan war and remains one of the country's most iconic symbols of military sacrifice. Sir Creek is the contested tidal estuary on the India-Pakistan border in the Rann of Kutch, where maritime boundary talks have stretched across decades. And INS Vikrant — India's first indigenously built aircraft carrier, commissioned in 2022 — represents the nation's growing blue-water naval ambition in the Indian Ocean.

Together, the trio spans every dimension of India's defence perimeter: land, coast, and deep ocean. The choice of these three names signals that the tribute is not ceremonial shorthand — it reaches into real, often-harsh postings where troops spend the festival far from home.

A tradition of festival solidarity with the forces

Diwali tributes to deployed troops have become a firmly established gesture across India's political spectrum. What gives Thakur's message a personal texture is the first-person framing — 'every Diwali with brave soldiers has been memorable for me' — invoking the memory of past visits rather than a generic seasonal message. Thakur has previously held the portfolios of Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports, and represents Hamirpur constituency in Himachal Pradesh, a state with a deep tradition of military service.

The post, shared with a video, reached an audience during the festival period as millions of Indian families lit lamps at home — and as thousands of service members stood watch so they could.

Hamirpur's bond with the uniform

Himachal Pradesh has one of the highest rates of military enlistment per capita among Indian states, and Hamirpur district is well known for its concentration of serving and veteran soldiers. For Thakur's constituency, a Diwali message to the forces carries local resonance as much as national symbolism.

When a former Union minister — himself from soldier country — calls the armed forces 'my family,' that phrase lands differently at the foot of the Himalayas. The lights this Diwali burned brightest, perhaps, for the ones who never came home for them.