In a major embarrassment for the Army, the Armed Forces Tribunal has ruled that a former Army commander showed bias towards a Brigadier under his command during the Kargil war and fudged records that have now become the official history of the 1999 conflict.
The tribunal has asked the armed forces to modify the official history of the war and set the record straight by giving due credit to Brigadier Devinder Singh who commanded the 70 Infantry Division in charge of the Batalik sector during the war.
The tribunal put in the dock Lt Gen Kishan Pal, 15 Corps Commander during the war, saying he falsified war records to show Brigadier Singh, the Brigade Commander, in poor light.
Lt Gen Pal, the tribunal said, fudged records to take away credit from Singh and mentioned instead another officer, Brigadier Ashok Dugal, while recording the post-war report. The post-war report was the basis for the official history of the Kargil war which may now have to be modified in the wake of the ruling.
Pal and Singh fell apart after the operations began as Singh insisted that there were over 600 intruders in Batalik while Pal was of the opinion that only 45 militants had crossed over.
While the ruling is now being studied by legal experts of the Army, it has come as a shock because it clearly says that a top officer created false records to take away credit from juniors. The tribunal directed that the sole credit for the operations in Batalik be given to Singh and mention of Dugal be deleted from the official history of the war.
Singh, whose stand has been vindicated, has received backing from across military circles. General V P Malik, who was Army chief during the Kargil war, said he is ?aggrieved? by the report and hopes that the Army takes suitable action to redeem the officer. ?I feel Brigadier Singh should have been promoted. But in the Army, there is a system where only reports are considered,? he said.
Singh went through several layers of procedure before getting justice. ?One has gone through a number of stages of non-statutory complaints, statutory complaints, legal notices and several writ petitions. And finally the order has seen the light of day,? he said.