Tribunal court directs to rewrite kargil history

NEW DELHI, May 27: One of the highly respected democratic Institution of India the Indian Army has got into trouble when the tribunal court of the Armed Forces has upheld claims that top commanders falsified accounts of battles in the Batalik sector in Kargil War reported in the 'The hindu'.

Brigadier Devinder Singh, who led the Batalik-based 70 Infantry Brigade during the war, filed a petition in Delhi High Court in 2006, complaining of false representation of his battle performance — false representation cost him a war medal and lead to not being promoted as Major-General.

In a judgment made public on Wednesday, May 26 Justice A.K. Mathur and Lieutenant-General Naidu — who heard the case after it was transferred from the Delhi High Court to the newly-formed Tribunal — have called on the Army to erase Lieutenant-General Kishan Pal's assessment of Brigadier Singh. They also directed the Army to delete sections of an after-action report prepared by 15 Corps, which claimed that Brigadier Singh only had had partial command of the 70 Brigade.

The Tribunal also directed the Directorate of Military Operations to rewrite portions of the official history ie Operation Vijay Account of the War in Kargil .

In an assessment of the 70 Brigade's conduct during the war, Lieutenant-General Pal asserted that Brigadier Singh had little to do with the success in Batalik. “Success in operations," he instead claimed, “particularly in the last 10-12 days, came about by Brigadier Ashok Duggal, Deputy-General Officer.

The Tribunal order suggested that personal malice went into this rewriting of events. In April 1999, Lieutenant-General Pal dismissed warnings emerging from a war game, which suggested that a Kargil-like intrusion could take place whereas Brigadier Devinder Singh assessment of having more intruders proved correct.

Brigadier Singh's case is the first of a string of Kargil war-related complaints pending before the Armed Forces Tribunal.

OneIndia News