Indian army leadership remains at odds with political leadership at Delhi

 

  Indian army leadership remains at odds with political leadership at Delhi — Indian government remains hostage to Army leadership despite claiming to be world's biggest democracy — Colonel Purohit network established by Indian Army top brass to keep Delhi under grip — Purohit-Sena network tried to damage Vajpayee's bus during his Lahore visit in 1999 — Indian Army leadership sent troops to Nepal without government's approval — General VP Malik directly sought military help from Israel during Kargil conflict — Deepak Kapoor sent MI Chief to BJP leader LK Advani to sabotage Pak-India FS level talks From Christina Palmer  NEW DELHI—While the Indian government at New Delhi claims to be heading the biggest democracy of the world, it remains a fact that the it has actually been held hostage to the desires and policies of its military leadership that has always been against India's forging peace with its neighbours, specially Pakistan and this military establishment of India has always been at odds with political and diplomatic establishment at New Delhi, reveal the investigations of The Daily Mail. Background interviews with former Indian army officers, seasoned politicians and former officials of Indian's ministries of External Affairs and Home affairs indicate that Indian Army leadership has always been at odds with political leadership of the country and these difference started after 1974 when on the acute pressure of the Indian army leadership, New Delhi went to carry out nuclear tests in Pokhran. The Daily Mail's findings indicate that the differences between the Indian government's policies and Indian army leadership's policies became public in 1998-99 when Indian, once again succumbing to Army's pressure, conducted the 2nd nuclear test in May 1998 and later, to cover-up the damage, the Indian Premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee embarked upon a friendship via bus to Pakistani city of Lahore. The Daily Mail's findings indicate that though the Indian Army leadership has always been feeling rather comfortable with BJP having its government at New Delhi owing to certain similarities between the anti-Pakistan policies of BJP's leadership and the Indian army's leadership, yet the Indian army leadership was very much against the visit of Prime minister Vajpayee to Lahore and General VP Malik showed his utter annoyance to the Prime Miniter's Office (PMO) over the visit. The Daily Mail's findings indicate that at this stage, the Indian army leadership decided to establish a network of hawks comprising some extremists Hindus from amongst the military establishment and members of Pakistan centric extremist Hindu outfits like the Shiv Sena, Sangh Parivar, Hindutva Brotherhood etc to maintain a pressure on Delhi. The Daily Mail's findings indicate that Indian's Army Lieutenant Colonel Srikanth Purohit, who was exposed by slain Anti Terrorism Chief of Mumbai Hemant Karkare for masterminding the Samjhota Express terrorism, was actually amongst the initial members of the network that was established by the Indian army leadership in the 90s.Colonel Purohit, who was a Major in the Indian Army in 1998-99, was tasked by the Army Chief to sabotage Vajpayee's bus visit to Lahore in 1999. The Daily Mail's findings indicate that that Major Purohit and his colleagues from Hindutva Brotherhood planned to blow up the Indian Premier's Bus when it was supposed to be parked at Wagha border with Premier Vajpayee and his entourage being at Lahore Fort, without causing any damage to Premier's life but to sabotage the peace process. The Daily Mail's findings indicate that a team of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and Special Branch department of Punjab Police that was given the task of ensuring the safety and security of Indian Premier and his delegation, detected the ploy of Major Purohit and company and arrested one Indian civilian with a very modern, yet small scale explosive device and defused the move. The matter was straight away brought to the notice of Pakistani Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, who, after discussing it with his Indian counterpart, ordered to hush up the matter for the sake of emerging peaceful atmosphere between the 2 countries. However it was not enough for the Indian Army top brass as they decided to prove Vajpayee's policies wrong and thus General Ved Prakash Malik ordered to stage the Kargil conflict episode, which, though enhanced the difference between New Delhi's political and military leaderships, yet helped the Indian Generals get rid of Vajpayee for good. The Daily Mail's findings further indicate that the outgoing Indian Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor and the upcoming Indian Army Chief General VK Singh, despite having a high voltage row and disliking for each other, are somehow unanimous over one agenda and that is to keep the Army-Extremists network alive and to pursue the same policies that their predecessors have been running with regard to Pak-India peace. The Daily Mail's findings indicate that when the political leadership at new Delhi, announced last month that it was ready to hold Foreign Secretary Level talks with Pakistan and indicated that Delhi was in a mood to resume the composite dialogue with Islamabad, the Indian military establishment reacted very strongly and opposed the move. The Daily Mail's findings reveal that the Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor, soon after this announcement, called an emergency meeting of senior commanders of the Indian Army and discussed the pervading scenario. Our Sources at the office of the Military Secretary at the Army headquarters revealed that in the meeting, it was decided that these talks should not be let held in first place or if it happens, Indian government should be asked not to discuss the Kashmir issue in these talks at all. The Daily Mail's findings reveal that on one side, General Deepak Kapoor and his associates held meetings with the officials of PMO and the External Affairs ministry to ensure the exclude the "K" affairs from the talks but on the other side, General Kapoor was feeding some stuff to BJP leaders to create problems for Manmohan government over the Pak-talks issue. The Daily Mail's findings reveal that General Deepak Kapoor dashed his Chief of Military Intelligence Lt. General RK Loomba to BJP leader LK Advani on the 16th of last month through a secret meeting at a common friend's residence. During this meeting which lasted for about one hour and 45 minutes, General Loomba and associates gave LK Advani the line of action to settle the scores with Congress and also to gain once again out of BJP's anti-Pakistan politics. Soon after this meeting was over, LK Advani started campaigning that the Indian government held talks with Pakistan under the US pressure etc and the BJP is keeping the issue heated up till now. On the other side, the Indian Army Chief General Kapoor, while talking to media on the 20th of last month, a just a few days ahead of Pak-India talks and when everyone was engaged in soothing the nerves and streamlining the most conducive atmosphere for meaningful dialogue, came up with an illogical statement, just based at sabotaging the upcoming talks and stated that infiltration from Pakistan was continuing. He, in breath said that Haji Pir Pass was chocked because of heavy snowfall but in the next breath claimed that infiltrators were still coming from there. The defence and diplomatic observers have termed this act of General Kapoor as nothing else but a farcical bid to disturb the mood of the talks. The Daily Mail's findings indicate that there are many other parameters to gauge that how the Indian army defies the orders and policies of the government of Indian. These findings indicate that during the Kargil conflict, when General VP Malik found himself to be helpless in securing his troops from Pakistan army's onslaught, he asked Delhi for some military help from Israel. After getting a negative response from New Delhi, General Malik established a direct link with his Israeli counterpart after which the Indian government was forced to intervene in getting its Army chief the military assistance from Israel. The Daily Mail's findings indicate that another occasion, on February 28,2005, Nepal's Royal Army, backed up by the Indian army, inflicted serious losses on a contingent of the Western Division of the Maoist People's Liberation Army. This involvement of Indian soldiers in a major battle against Maoist guerrillas in Nepal represented a new and alarming development in the war. On February 1, 2005, Nepal's King Gyanendra's declared a state of emergency, dissolved the parliament, sacked the prime minister and suspended many constitutional rights, including freedom of the press, speech and expression, peaceful assembly, the right to privacy, and the right against preventive detention. The Indian government officially denounced this move by the King and announced it was suspending military aid to the Nepalese government. But meanwhile, on the ground, India Army was not only still backing, but stepping up its support for and involvement in the RNA efforts to crush the Maoist insurgency, despite Indian government's stiff stance over the situation. But it was Indian military leadership that took its own decisions and own initiatives, defying and rejecting Delhi's polices. The statement by the commander of the PLA Western Division, issued on February 3, 2005, said that the Indian Army's Border Security Force arrested seven Maoist fighters and took them back to India. This was the first time the Indian Army seized Maoist guerrillas in a battle in Nepal. The Daily Mail's findings reveal that the Indian Army goes by the Army Act while probing allegations of sexual abuse. But in the process it may be blatantly overlooking guidelines issued by the Supreme Court on sexual harassment at workplace, say activists. "We do not go by the Supreme Court's guidelines. The army officers first come under the Army Act and we take serious note of sexual allegations," a senior Indian Army official told The Daily Mail while requesting anonymity. "The army has a standing policy that every case of serious nature invariably goes to the military court. The Supreme Court guidelines are not applicable as we have the Army Act," former Indian Army Advocate General Maj Gen Neelendra Kumar told The Daily Mail The apex court had issued guidelines for conducting inquiries into cases of sexual harassment at workplace in an August 1997 judgment and these are meant to be applicable in the absence of any specific legislation. The Army Act 1950, which was formulated for men when women had not been inducted into the forces, does not have specific provisions dealing with cases of sexual abuse. The allegations are generally clubbed with "unbecoming conduct" on the part of officers. However, K P S Satheesh, Chairman of NGO The Guardian Foundation argues that the army's argument that its personnel are under the Army Act cannot be accepted since the act was meant only for men. "In the absence of any specific rules, procedures or norms in the Army Act for solving sexual harassment at workplace, the apex court guidelines are very well applicable to the army as well," Satheesh said. According to Defence Minister A K Antony, during the last five years, 11 cases of sexual harassment have been reported in the armed forces, where the strength of women officers remains minuscule. The Daily Mail's findings reveal that currently, 5,137 women officers serve in the Indian armed forces. They include 4,101 in the army, 784 in the air force and 252 in the navy. A recent example is the case of Captain Poonam Kaur of the Army Supply Corps (ASC). In July 2008, she alleged that three officers of her unit had mentally and sexually harassed her and confined her illegally when she resisted their advances. The army then constituted a court of inquiry whereby all three officers denied the allegations and she was found guilty on at least 20 counts, including levelling false charges against her senior officers. The apex court has succinctly laid down that any inquiry team investigating a sexual harassment case should be headed by a woman, more than half the members should be women and there should be third party participation in the inquiry like that of a non-profit organisation. However, the inquiry into Kaur's allegations was presided over by Brigadier RP Attri of the army's Western Command headquarters. Among the three members of the inquiry, only one was female and there was no representative from an NGO in the panel.         ÂÂ

 

 

---