The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Thursday, August 2, 2001,
Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I L B A G

Dealing with a military ruler

This refers to the article by Mr T.V. Rajeswar, “Dealing with a military ruler” (July 30). Mr Rajeswar, whom I have known as a decent polite police officer and have dealt with him on many occasions when I was personally involved in initiating dialogue as a mediator between the then Prime Minister and the leadership of the All Assam Students Union, writes:

“.... international border despite India holding 96,000 Pakistani prisoners of war and some captured territory. P.N. Haksar’s deathbed regrets for having misled Indira Gandhi are of no avail now. Perhaps if Indira Gandhi had taken the ministers constituting the CCPA to Simla, someone would have put in a word of caution? All the Kashmiri big thinkers — D.P. Dhar, P.N. Haksar, T.N. Kaul and P.N. Dhar — were there and yet the outcome was disastrous. Fortunately, this time Mr L.K.Advani and Mr Jaswant Singh....”

Mr Rajeswar is factually incorrect. A perusal of the record of the Simla summit and even the reference to Prof P.N. Dhar’s book entitled “Indira Gandhi and Emergency and Indian Democracy” would establish the fact that the members of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) comprising Babu Jagjivan Ram, Y.B. Chavan, Swaran Singh and also perhaps Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, the seniormost ministers of the Cabinet, were there during the Simla summit.

I have no intention to refer to my personal conversation with the late P.N. Haksar and also my presence during the Simla summit. Yet it may be more appropriate to refer to pages 187 to 222 of the book authored by Prof P.N. Dhar, who was then Secretary to the Prime Minister and also to the available record of the Simla summit and the events published in newspapers as well as several professional journals.

May I record my deep appreciation for the high standard of contributions from eminent authors published in The Tribune . This particular misinformation by my distinguished friend, T.V. Rajeswar, should be seen in isolation of the general trend set by The Tribune in making it readable to lakhs of readers.

RASHPAL MALHOTRA, Director, CRRID, Chandigarh

NHPC version

Apropos the news item “Cloudburst: NHPC suffers loss” (July 24), the factual position is as follows:

On 22.7.2001 at about 3.30 p.m a cloudburst occurred in the upper reaches of Jiwa Nallah in the Sainj valley. A flash flood occurred in the Sainj river and damaged the left bank area of Suind village in the valley. The damage in the village area was extensive and some of the shops, houses got damaged. A footbridge belonging to the local administration also got washed away.

The NHPC is getting constructed one bridge across the Sainj river at Suind. This flash flood has brought a lot of muck, boulders etc and filled the abutment area but the abutment appears to be intact and assessment of any damage is possible only after the removal of boulders and muck. Equipment like compressors, Gensets, Mixers of the contractor got washed away in the flood.

As far as the NHPC loss is concerned, three gauge sites one u/s of this bridge and two of the downstream bridge got damaged and they need re-erection. One cradle way of the NHPC across the Sainj also got damaged and snapped due to hit of the boulders. With this flood, the river-bed level in Sainj near the bridge and upstream has risen by 6/7 mtrs and the water level was seen flowing at a level of +1331 mtrs. Apart from this, no damage to the NHPC equipment has occurred.

At the same time another cloudburst occurred in the Manikaran valley also and a flash flood occurred in the Parbati river and Tosh Nallah and damaged some wire crates near the dam site which is of minor nature.

S. R. BHARDWAJ, Executive Director, Faridabad