M A I N   N E W S

Kargil controversy brews
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Feb 17 — The controversy over the circumstances which led to the Pakistani intrusion into Kargil last year refuses to die down with the Army now putting the blame squarely on three senior officers and on the other hand one of the officers held responsible writing to the President, Mr K.R. Narayanan, that the Army chief, Gen V. P. Malik, was trying to buy him out.

With the reports that the President had forwarded the letter from Brig Surinder Singh, who was the Brigade Commander of the 121(1) Brigade at Kargil, to Army Headquarters (AHQ) without comments and the Government getting ready to place a watered down version of the Subrahmanyam Committee report in Parliament during the forthcoming Budget session, it was expected that it would be some time before the controversy would actually settle.

While an internal inquiry by the army has indicted Brig Surinder Singh and recommended action against him for failing to counter the Pakistani intrusions that led to the conflict last year, the officer in his letter to the President has alleged that the AHQ had launched a “highly illegal onslaught” against him through the media. He has said that the army authorities were spreading various untrue facts and disinformation.

Brig Surinder Singh has stressed that he had apprised everyone, including the Chief of Army Staff of the situation, but he was called an alarmist. While claiming that he was wrongly being blamed for leakage of information to the media, he also alleged that it was in fact the army authorities, including the Chief of Army Staff, who had been meeting the press regularly.

Wanting an audience with the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Brig Surinder Singh has alleged that he was being threatened and abused by officers. He has alleged that the Army Chief had made various offers to him in regard to assurance of “safety” of his career in return to his keeping quiet.

However, the army’s inquiry pointed out that Brig Singh’s superior officer, Major-General V.S. Budhwar, and Col. Pushpinder Oberoi, commander of one of the battalions at the Line of Control, also failed to act appropriately.

The inquiry, conducted by Lieut-Gen A.R.K. Reddy, Chief of Staff of the Northern Command, was conducted independent of the K. Subrahmanyam Committee, which submitted its report early this year to the government. The Army is studying Reddy’s report, and suitable action will be initiated at “an appropriate time”, sources said.

The report says there were major lapses on the part of one of the three battalions manning the LoC. Pakistani infiltrators managed to enter the area held by 16 Grenadiers, commanded by Col Pushpinder Oberoi, and occupied features which were supposed to be patrolled by the Indian troops.

According to sources in Army HQ, the Gen Reddy Committee has nailed Brig Singh for his failure to act when the intrusions were detected. The committee says the Brigadier lost the trust of his soldiers at the crucial hour. Army sources said Brig Singh has been pulled up more for his failure “after” the intrusions were detected.

Major-Gen Budhwar, the controversial head of the Leh-based division and Brig Singh’s superior, has also been mentioned for his failure to take co-ordinated action. But his role is not as direct as that of Brig Singh, the report says.

There were three battalions under Brig Singh to patrol 150 km of the LoC in the Kargil sector. In areas held by the 16 Grenadiers, the infiltrators even managed to occupy ridges usually patrolled by the Indian troops. But even after a patrol party went missing, the commanding officer failed to carry out a detailed assessment of the threat and warn his seniors of the extent of infiltration.

Brig Singh, Col Oberoi kept repeating that the infiltration would be checked in a couple of days, and this feedback misled even the Defence Minister.

The two other battalions- 4 Jat in Kaksar and 3 Punjab in Batalik- told the inquiry committee that the infiltrators came into heights in those regions where no patrolling was normally done and there were unmanned stretches of up to 25 km.