The Hindu : Front Page : No 'neglect' during Kargil war: Jaswant

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Tuesday, Jun 08, 2004

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Front Page

No 'neglect' during Kargil war: Jaswant

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, JUNE 7. The former External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh, who was a member of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) at the time of the Kargil war, today strongly denied "any kind of neglect" on the part of the Vajpayee Government "in dealing with the challenge thrown" at the country "in the form of Kargil."

Mr. Singh said that initially the then Air Force chief had opposed using air power while warning that it could escalate and enlarge the conflict, but a little later a decision was taken to use air power "on our side" of the Line of Control in the Kargil area.

Senior Ministers in the previous Government today broke their silence over allegations in the media that the CCS, at the time of the Kargil war, had delayed giving permission to the military to use air power leading to unnecessarily high casualties on the Indian side. L.K. Advani, who was Home Minister at the time, George Fernandes, the then Defence Minister, and Mr. Singh addressed the press today at the end of a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance MPs.

Although the meeting was called to discuss the NDA's parliamentary strategy on "tainted Ministers," the leaders came prepared to air their views on Kargil as they were armed with volumes of the "in-house" report on the Kargil operations by the Director-General of Military Operations (DGMO), from which Mr. Singh quoted profusely to make his point. The opportunity for this digression was apparently provided by some MPs who raised the recent media reports on the Kargil war and wanted to know the facts of the case.

Mr. Singh said that normally after every military conflict an assessment was made of the war. Various questions could always be asked. Why were the raiders in Kashmir not followed in 1948? Why was air power not deployed in the 1962 war with China? Why were a large number of prisoners-of-war returned to Pakistan after 1971? He said that the previous Government had implemented many of the recommendations made in the K. Subrahmanyam Committee report on the Kargil war.

Besides that report, there was the six-volume detailed "in-house" assessment of the operations made by the DGMO and Mr. Singh presumed that the recent media reports were based on this.

He said that in fact, when the issue of deployment of helicopters first came up it was "opposed" by the then Air Chief who pointed out that "it would enlarge the conflict." However, on May 24, 1999 the decision was taken to use air power "on our side" of the LoC. Mr. Fernandes sat silently throughout the presentation by Mr. Singh and even when asked whether he would like to add anything, he said "no."

Earlier, Mr. Advani said that some MPs wanted to "know the facts" from their leaders at today's meeting and "when Mr. Fernandes told them the facts, they felt that they should be brought to the notice of the people."

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