The result was that while others were checked out of the war zone, I had to end up been beaten by some army jawans in Hotel Zozila's room number 306 (ostensibly as a case of mistaken identity). At last, justice prevailed and poor Batalik-based Brigade commander Devinder Singh got justice. He not only got his honour back but also forced the Army to rewrite the battle history (has anyone heard of this).
Well dear readers, my point is not to bore you with the details of what you may have read in the newspapers but to underline a fact that Gen Pal was habitual in hiding things from the government. When the first patrol of Lt Saurabh Kalia went missing, he had hid the fact from his superiors and Government for long. At least till the heat of Kargil war swept his feet away and Pakistanis returned the body of brave Indian soldiers in a mutilated condition. And when We reported, Gen Pal put all his machinery at his disposal to deny the story with assistance from the Army headquarters.
When the turn for gallantry medals came, Gen Pal ignored the supreme sacrifice of Lt Kalia and his men -- whose disappearance had given the first signals of intrusion -- and instead chose to stand the queue for medal and got it also (sycophancy pays).
Another such incident was that of November 4, 1999 when heavily-armed terrorist of Lashker-e-Taiba entered into Army Cantonment and gunned down Major Pramod Purushottam (God I miss him even today with the same intensity). While I was reporting about the attack, what puzzled me when one of my senior was summoned by the office of the then Defence Minister George Fernandes. The issue was that Gen Pal had informed the Ministry and Army headquarters that the attack was not on cantonment but outside and media was unnecessarily playing it up.
Major Purushottam not only showed exemplary courage and bravery in taking the entire heat of the attack but also showed presence of mind in ensuring safety of two journalists who had come to see him. Wish Purushottam had allowed the terrorists to sneak up to Gen Pal's office, at least the moron could have seen actual battle.
Now wonder will the self-decorated General Pal, who must have achieved all his medals through a canard of lies (at least three examples are there), be ever tried for his lies. Will the nation set an example by punishing at least one of these red-collared Generals.
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4 comments:
Rubber Stamp Minister
You will not read this in any newspaper, not in those published in Jammu and Kashmir. Once again, it seems the brave soldiers of the Army have shot dead three youth in cold blooded murder, known as Fake Encounter in local parlance, and branded them as infiltrators from across the border. Many of you would say this is nothing new as this is not happening for the first time.
Well, this is not what prompted me to put out these words to all of you. Actually, I want to just narrate the sequence of some events that took place yesterday and leave the judgement to you.
The journalists working out of Srinagar received a mail on behalf of Minister of State for Roads and Buildings Javaid Ahmad Dar, confirming that the three 'Militants' killed in Macchil encounter on April 30 were those who had been reported missing from the Nadihal area falling under the Rafiabad Assembly constituency represented by him.
I spoke to several top police officers in Kashmir valley regarding the issue but the officers maintained that they have not clinching evidence to conclude that those killed in Macchil were the same youth missing from Nadihal.
I mentioned to them that a minister in the state government was confirming the incident and even promised the families to take up the issue with Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, several dozen attempts later I got through to the minister-concerned and he flatly denied have issued any statement. It would not have been out of place for some vested interests to spoil the name of the minister by issuing fake statements but it has come from same email ID from which we used to get statement from him earlier.
Clearly, the voice of the Ministers in Jammu and Kashmir is subservient to that of Police officers, whatever the rank may be!!!!
Pal, you have hit the nail right on its head. This ba..... Kishan Pal should be court martialled for not only what all he has done, but also for misleading even the then Defence Minister George Fernandes, telling him that the PRO office, headed by Col Purushottam, was outside the Badamibagh cantonment and not inside, as we knew. The Minister, on that basis, blasted the media of Srinagar and Delhi, even called them 'anti-national' because they had, as reported to him, twisted facts to say that security of the cantonment had been breached as the terrorists had entered the cantt premises.
In an interview to Doordarshan, he had said all this. Luckily for Fernandes, I reached the Ministry headquarters and drew the map of the cantonment to show where exactly the PRO office was. Then there were hurried phone calls to Doordarshan not to air that part of the interview. Doordarshan did not show it and therefore saved the face of Fernandes. So much for the wrong briefing done by Krishan Pal, who then headed the 15 Corps, and therefore wanted to save his ass by saying that the terror strike was outside the cantt and not inside and there was no security breach.
General Pal who mislead the entire nation to protect himself or to become a national hero he should actually be killed mercilessly by the wild dogs..
dear sir/ma'm,,,,,
i had d news of gen. Pal...& Brig. Devinder,,,,,,,,,,,,,
i agree wit u,,,,,,,,,,,
blood boils out u kno,,,,,
seeing sch n injustice,,,,,,,,,,,
k totaaly geared up 2do my bst 4 d bettermnt of r nation,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,watever may b d means...............
m hpy 2read u here...............
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