According to the Kargil Review Committee (KRC), the Brigadier did regularly deploy other surveillance means such as helicopter patrols (WASO patrols) but these failed to detect intrusions. According to the KRC, areas the enemy occupied had not been held for decades.

The Brigadier did appreciate that the enemy might attempt to capture some territory in the Dras sector to interdict the road to Leh and had included this possibility in a war-game he held at the Bde HQ and conveyed his apprehensions to the GOC, 3 Infantry Division, in January, 1999. The committee records that he did not on his own undertake patrolling of the area for fears of casualties due to avalanches and weather conditions for which the commanders on the spot have to bear the blame.

The KRC report has dealt with the poser "was Kargil avoidable?" and come out with the answer: yes, provided the Indian Army had followed a policy of Siachenisation to plug the unheld gaps along the 168 km stretch from Koabal Gali to Chorbatla. I am sure General Khurana does know what Siachenisation of 168 km means. In place of a Bde, now a full Army Corps is doing that job with enormous logistic resources deployed in support.

The officer did not merit the treatment meted out to him and in this the higher command has displayed an element of vendetta. No one can hold a brief for the Brigadier for rushing to the Press and political parties with his tales of woe. He ought to have exercised restrain and displayed discretion in keeping with the service ethos and expected conduct.

Our fears are that the show cause notice served on the Brigadier for the termination of his services and subsequent act of removal from the Army is flawed and the service may end up eating a humble pie.

Brig K.S. KANG (retd), Chandigarh

Unfair to Brigadier: General Khorana appears to have concealed some of the core issues concerning the security and intelligence reports, alleged to have been conveyed by the Brigadier to his immediate superior and also upward in the chain of command.

General Khorana wants the public to believe that the institution of the Chief of Army Staff is not directly involved in the removal of an officer from the command. By saying so he has slighted the status of a service chief who during the war or a conflict of intensity of Kargil is kept informed second by second of all successes and failures on the front where the military intelligence matters the most.

It is the leader who wins a war and is also punished for his failures and flaws. General Khorana appears to have been unkind in his observations on Brig Surinder Singh. The reasons given by the sacked Brigadier and the role played by General Malik during the Kargil conflict deserved to be investigated to reach the truth.

General Khorana should be fair to the readers and tell as to how many soldiers senior to Brigadier Singh have been found guilty of the security lapse.

MULTAN SINGH PARIHAR, Jalari-Hamirpur (HP)

Consumer protection One of the amendments proposed to the Consumer Protection Act in the coming Parliament session is to exclude its application where "corresponding remedies of judicial nature are available." This change needs to be opposed tooth and nail. Public utilities like the Railways, telephones and banks have always fought shy of the Consumer Protection Act by invoking which consumers have sought to make them accountable. In addition, consumer courts order employees concerned to pay compensation to the aggrieved consumers. To avoid action under the Consumer Protection Act, banks have set up Bank Ombudsmen, but as they are staffed by retired bankers, who are sympathetic to their erstwhile colleagues, bank customers have been disappointed by the working of these Ombudsmen. Telephone adalats are manned by departmental officers. There is hardly any justice to subscribers who approach them with complaints. In spite of their shortcomings, consumer courts offer a non-expensive and relatively speedy remedy to aggrieved consumers. This position should not be disturbed by succumbing to the tricks of the bureaucracy for which non-accountability has been an article of faith. M. R. PAI, Mumbai