General to proble defence leaks
Brig Surinder Singh's letter on Kargil
From Girja Shankar Kaura
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 2 — The Army has initiated an inquiry into the leaking of the letter written by Brig Surinder Singh, ex-commander of the 121 (I) Infantry Brigade, on the situation in Kargil to the political parties who have been raising it in their daily briefings to the embarrassment of India’s fighting arm.

According to sources, the inquiry is being conducted by a serving General and is being conducted independent of that being done by the Subramanyam Committee set up to look into the intrusions in the Kargil sector. Any action against Brig Surinder Singh, who is at present reportedly in Chandigarh, if need be, would be taken only after the completion of the inquiry.

The Army is inquiring into the circumstances in which the letter dated June 28, 1999, written to the Chief of Army Staff, Gen V.P. Malik by Brig Surinder Singh, was leaked to the political parties. Besides, the inquiry is also to establish whether Brig Surinder Singh played a direct role in leaking this letter and the other "Demi Official (DO)" notes, which as such become "Secret Documents" to the members of the media.

In the past few days top level officers of the Army have been closeted at meetings to discuss the issue and as to how to proceed in the matter, which has put the force in an embarrassing situation.

The inquiry is also being conducted to verify whether Brig Surinder Singh had written any letter in November 1998, as was being claimed by him and if so, why did it not reach the higher authorities. The Army has denied that Brig Singh had written any letter in November, 1998, detailing the situation prevailing in Kargil and pointing out the possible points from where the intrusion could take place by Pakistan.

A senior Army official not wanting to be quoted pointed out that leakage of official secret documents to the media was a ‘court martial’ offence under the Army Act. However, the force would be waiting for the completion of the inquiry before deciding on the further course of action, he said.

Besides the letter that Brig Surinder Singh wrote, the Army was also trying to verify that at which level the DO notes, which he sent, got lost. Incidentally, the DO notes became situation reports in this instance, which were ignored by the senior officers.

Meanwhile, the Army Headquarters today again clarified and asserted that it had not received any letter from Brig Surinder Singh, ex-Commander of the 121 (1) Infantry Brigade, warning against enhanced threat to some places in Kargil sector from across the LoC.

It described as "completely out of context" reports appearing in a section of the media.

A statement issued by Army Headquarters here said the only letter received by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), through his Military Assistant, from Brig Surinder Singh was after his (Brig Singh’s) removal from the Command of the brigade. Brig Singh had in the letter represented against his removal.

In the letter, Brig Surinder Singh had attached several annexures of his correspondence with his divisional headquarters. The statement had already been handed over to the Subramanyam Committee set up to look into the matter.

The weekly "Outlook" in its recent edition, has published some letters purportedly written by Brig Surinder Singh to the COAS warning against enemy threat to various sectors in Kargil, including Marpola, Mushkoh, Kaobali, Tololing, Kaksar, Bhimbat, Batalik and Yaldor which were the scene of action recently.

Although the government and the Army have consistently denied that any such letter was received by them, Brigadier Singh has stuck to his version, nevertheless, a commission of inquiry — Subramanyam Commission — has been set up to look into the matter.

The statement said Brig Surinder Singh had submitted an application to the COAS for reinstatement vide his letter no 29734/SS CONFD dated June 28, 1999, which contained 26 annexures marked from annexure 1 to xxvi. "Among these annexures there is a HQ 121 INF BDE letter no 124/GSD/VIS dated August 25, 1998, addressed to headquarters 3 Infantry Division wherein some points for briefing of COAS during his impending visit (August 29, 1998) were forwarded for approval of GOC 3 INF DIV."

In his briefing to the COAS, Brig Surinder Singh had made no mention of immediate or enhanced threat to the places as mentioned in the "Outlook", the statement added. "Letter No Brief/COAS/124/GSD/VIF/DG, dated August 25, 1998, as published in the magazine without cross checking facts with the Army is either fabricated or doctored."

The statement said during his briefing to the COAS on August 29, 1998, Brig Singh did make a demand for allotment of weapon locating radars and remotely piloted vehicles. The COAS informed him that these resources do not form part of Army’s inventory. So the question of allotment did not arise.

It also denied that the COAS Secretariat or anyone in the chain of command had received any letter (NoDO/ROG/COAS dated November 12, 1998) and said the letter in question appeared to have been "fabricated, fictitious or an after thought on someone’s part."

Also, letter No 186/GS/OPS dated December 17, 1998, was not received by the COAS Secretariat and the letter appeared to have been "fabricated or doctored."

The statement said the above mentioned letters were not included in the annexures to Brig Surinder Singh’s letter dated June 28, 1999 which has been submitted to the Subramanyam Committee.