Father A K Antony did it. Since there was no big cut involved like in 2G or 3G, no one pressured him to do it. And that ignominious tradition lives on in the NDA administration. The Department of Medals under the Defence Ministry has not been issuing original medals to soldiers for their acts of valor and sacrifice since 2008. For the past nine years, all the medals that our soldiers added to their uniform were duplicates purchased from Delhi cantonment's Gopinath market. Could there be anything more demeaning than this? For men and women in the military, each medal on their uniform tells unique stories of their valor and sacrifice. Indianmandarins has learnt that not a single medal has been issued by the department since 2008. There is a backlog of about 14.5 lakh medals of various types. There are several kinds of awards and medals conferred on personnel for gallantry, distinguished service awards, commendation, various decorations and long service medals. Of these, gallantry awards are directly presented during the investiture ceremony by the Supreme Commander of the armed forces, the President of India. The original medal contains the names and service numbers of the personnel, while the duplicate doesn't. Several Army officers revealed to Indianmandarins that they had bought duplicate medals. However, younger soldiers are not even aware that the medals are issued by the government. "We are not even aware that there is a separate department for issuing these medals. We have always purchased them in the market," a young officer said. (By M K Shukla and Rakesh Ranjan)