Jaitley slams govt on army report leak
Asserting that intelligence agencies and the Army have the right to conduct covert operations, which are above Parliament or judicial scrutiny, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Tuesday slammed the government over the “leak” of an Army inquiry report on an intelligence unit set up former Army Chief V.K. Singh. Mr Jaitley said Prime Ministers, home ministers, defence ministers, Chief of the Army Staff, heads of IB and R&AW and several others in the government are privy to information which “must necessarily die with them”.
Accusing the UPA government of deliberately leaking information of covert operations for its “narrow political interest,” the senior BJP leader said it will be a “setback” to counter insurgency operations.
He further alleged that the government has gone public with these covert operations- be it the activities of the intelligence unit set up by Gen. Singh or the Ishrat Jahan encounter case to score points when faced with certain electoral defeat and has been unmindful of whether this will hurt the country. He also charged the government of abandoning its state-craft.
“The hard fact is that in a country with serious security threats, the existence of these activities of intelligence agencies has to be strengthened. Intelligence agencies have to conduct various covert operations. And yet there has to be an element of deniability in the covert operations,” Mr Jaitley said in an article on his website.
Referring to the findings of a board of officials inquiry which reportedly indicts Gen. Singh, he said the CBI cannot invoke its investigative jurisdiction to start investigating whether secret funds have been properly spent by the Intelligence Bureau, the R&AW or the military intelligence or by any other agency. “All these activities are neither accountable to Parliament nor judicially justiciable. These are a part of the covert operations. The desirability and the appropriateness of these activities is a subject matter for the government of the day to decide,” Mr Jaitley said. The BJP leader also questioned Gen Singh’s revelations in the media and wondered if he should have at all have admitted that such payments were indeed undertaken.
Post new comment