‘I want to live, to talk about Sandeep’

“I have asked him several times why we need to spend crores on defence when the same money can be spent on education and health. After all, in a global village, it is believed that there is no religion or borders. But then, I think those three days (November 26-28) proved it wrong,” Unnikrishnan said.

Unnikrishnan said that his health was not so good of late.

“I want to live a long life so that I can talk about Sandeep. We should not forget the sacrifice made by him and others,” he added.

Explaining career opportunities that someone like his son Sandeep had, he said, “He could have chosen better careers, perhaps engineering. Sandeep once told me, it is easy to find thousands of engineers, but hard to find a handful of good soldiers.”

“Our approach towards soldiers,” he continued, “We feel that they have a jolly good life drinking and spending time at army canteens. But the minute one dons the uniform and is given a task, the only thing that matters is the country. Their sacrifice inspires others to join the armed forced. ”

Coming Monday, Unnikrishnan will unveil Sandeep’s statue near K R Puram.

The next two days, he will travel to Mumbai and New Delhi to attend a 26/11 memorial service. With a final call from Dhanalakshmi for lunch, Unnikrishnan smiled and got up.

“I have a lot of pending work.”

 A book on Sandeep

Unnikrishnan said he is keen to pen a book on Sandeep. “I plan to write about our interactions with Sandeep, and avoid any commentary on our system.”

PENDING MERCY PETITIONS

* Praveen Kumar Sapaliga, murder cases *  Saibanna, murder cases * Saiman, Veerappan’s associate * Jyanaprakash, Veerappan’s associate * Madayaa alias Meesekara Madayya, Veerappan’s associate * Bilvendran, Veerappan’s associate * Shivu, rape and murder case * Jadeswamy, rape and murder case * B A Umesh alias Umesh Reddy, rape and murder cases