M A I N   N E W S

Govt to table Kargil report
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Feb 15 — The government has decided to table the findings of the Subramanyam Committee, which went into the circumstances leading to the Pakistani intrusion in Kargil in May last year, in the Budget session of Parliament.

Although the Subramanyam Committee in its report had suggested that the findings should not be made public due to their sensitive nature and the national security involved, but the Union Cabinet at its meeting today decided to table the report in Parliament. The committee had suggested that only an “executive summary” should be released if the government decided to do so.

Making the announcement, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Pramod Mahajan said the date for tabling the report would be decided later.

Mr Mahajan said the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had also gone into the report of the committee headed by the noted defence analyst. The report was submitted to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee by Mr K. Subramanyam last month.

Reports, however, suggest that although the government had decided to table the report, but it would be a sanitised version of the report actually prepared by the committee. Sections, references or observations that would have a direct impact on the armed forces’ operational matters may be excluded.

The decision to table the sanitised report was apparently taken after the defence top brass cautioned against making public matters like force levels, deployment patterns and weapons positioning. This suggestion had reportedly been made during the meeting of the CCS earlier this month.

The decision not only points out that the government wants a debate on the issue but also confirms that the committee had found little fault with the government’s handling of Kargil situation and instead stressed on lapses in Intelligence acquisition and the Army’s immediate local response.

For the government, the presentation of the report would not only silence the Opposition but also build a case that lack of specialised high altitude equipment was the result of limited budgetary allocations by the previous governments.

The Army, on the other hand has blamed local commanders in Kargil for sluggish response when the intrusions were first detected.