"Wall of heroes" with portraits of Param Veer Chakra awardees will come up at around 1,000 schools and colleges across the country to inspire the youth.
Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar today launched the Centre's campaign "Vidya, Veerta Abhiyan" as he condemned the killing of two soldiers by Pakistan.
While the establishment of the "wall of heroes" is voluntary for the educational institutes, he clarified that Centre will not issue any grants for the purpose and students and teachers should be encouraged to pool in money for the same.
"The condemnable and barbaric act by Pakistan has been carried out after ignoring all indicators of humanity. Even war has few principles but they do not any principle of humanity or either they don't want to know it. The entire country is anguished," Javadekar said at the event.
The HRD Minister reiterated Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's comments that the sacrifice of the soldiers will not go waste.
He said, "It is important that we have portraits of such soldiers in our universities to create passion and enthusiasm among the youngsters."
The initiative is part of the Centre's Vidya Veerta Abhiyan (Wisdom and Warrior Campaign) and was conceived by BJP leader Tarun Vijay, who called it "a humble attempt to inculcate patriotism in the students".
Under the campaign conceptualised by the BJP MP, universities will set up walls measuring 15 X 20 feet and featuring portraits of the 21 soldiers decorated with the Param Veer Chakra, the highest war-time gallantry award.
"On a day when the bodies of the two soldiers have come, this campaign is being launched," Javadekar said as he handed over the portraits of the Param Veer Chakra awardees to the vice chancellors and representatives of various universities including the JNU, the DU, the Jamia Millia Islamia, the Central University of Jammu, the Arunachal Pradesh university, the Kerala University and the IIT Delhi among others.
Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre was also present at the event and condemned the beheading of the two Indian soldiers by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir.
The idea of having a wall of martyrs in universities was first proposed by a group of ex-servicemen.
They had last year approached JNU Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar, saying portraits of martyrs and tanks used in wars should be put on display in the campus to instill sense of "nationalism" and "patriotism" among the students.
The demand came amid a raging debate on nationalism following a sedition row on campus over an event during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.
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