The Indian Army will file a review petition in the Armed Forces Tribunal to oppose any change in the Kargil war records, Army sources said on Monday. In a judgement in May this year on a case filed earlier by Brig. (retd.) Devinder Singh, who was the head of the 70 Infantry Brigade during the Kargil conflict of 1999, the Armed Forces
Tribunal had ordered certain “moderations” in two paragraphs of the Kargil war account prepared by the Military Operations Directorate and also corrections in the “After Action Report” of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps. The Army will appeal against this.
Brig. Singh had appealed in his petition that his performance in the Kargil war should be correctly recorded and alleged that the then head of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps Lt. Gen. (retd.) Kishan Pal had tried to belittle his performance during the conflict. The Armed Forces Tribunal, in its judgement, had severely indicted Lt. Gen. Pal for his biased Annual Confidential Report where he denied due credit for the Kargil operations to Brig. (retd.) Singh.
According to the Tribunal’s judgement, Lt. Gen. Pal had earlier stated in records that success in the Kargil operations had come about by superimposing another officer Brig. Ashok Dugal (on Brig. Singh) but the then head of the 3 Infantry Division Maj. Gen. Budhwar had stated that no one was superimposed on Brig. Singh.
But now, at the core of the Army’s opposition to any changes in the war records is its contention that Maj. Gen. Budhwar had stated in 1999 that another officer Brig. Ashok Dugal had taken over charge of the eastern flank of Kargil to “oversee operations”. However, the Armed Forces Tribunal had cited Maj. Gen. Budhwar as saying that Brig. Dugal “was temporarily given charge of the eastern flank to co-ordinate and assist” the 70 Infantry Brigade.
The Army is contending that there was “no fictional headquarters” in the Eastern Flank.