Headlines
India confused about policy on Pakistan: Kargil martyr's father
Shimla, June 1
Feeling let down by the
successive Indian governments, the father of Captain Saurabh Kalia is
now pinning hopes on the Supreme Court. Saurabh was the first to report
Pakistani incursion in Kargil in 1999. He was taken captive with five
other troops by Pakistani troops and his mutilated body was handed over
to his family a few weeks later.
"Whether it's the NDA
(National Democratic Alliance) or the UPA (United Progressive Alliance),
both are two sides of the same coin," the late young army man's father
N.K. Kalia told IANS on Monday.
Aghast at the stand of the
Narendra Modi government on dealing with Mumbai terror attackers and the
Pakistan army, the senior Kalia said India was apparently confused in
its policy on Pakistan.
His outburst came a day after External
Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj denied any "flip-flop" in India's policy
towards Pakistan and said no talks can be held with it as long as Mumbai
attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was walking free.
"It's
something astonishing that India is projecting a tough stand against the
perpetrators of the Mumbai attack but somehow soft towards its national
heroes. Why?" asked 64-year-old Kalia, who retired as a senior
scientist from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
"Is
Pakistan a friend or an enemy? India is totally confused. This is my
personal experience for the past 16 years when I lost my son for the
country's sake."
The previous Manmohan Singh government had
clarified its stand in the Supreme Court in November 2013 that it will
not treat Kalia's torture by Pakistani troops as a war crime.
The
central government had filed its response in the case in the apex
court, saying it had no intention of taking up the issue under the
Geneva Convention.
Kalia said the same stand was being pursued by
the present BJP government, which before coming to power had projected
itself to be tough against Pakistan.
"Like its predecessor, the
BJP government at the Centre is soft. This is amply reflected from
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs V.K. Singh's reply to MP Rajeev
Chandrashekhar's question in parliament," he said.
To
Chandrashekhar's query on whether the government proposed to take up
Kalia's torture with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), V.K.
Singh, himself a retired General and army chief, had recently replied:
"The attention of the international community has already been drawn to
these heinous and barbaric acts of Pakistan army, including through a
statement to the UN General Assembly on September 22, 1999, and to the
Commission of Human Rights in April 2000."
"The possibility of
seeking legal remedies through the international courts was also
thoroughly examined, but not found feasible," said V.K. Singh in his
reply, forwarded by Chandrasekhar to Kalia.
Chandrasekhar also
sought to plead the case with the UN Human Rights Council to declare the
torture of Captain Saurabh Kalia and five other soldiers, whom
Pakistani army captured with him, as a war crime.
The elderly
Kalia, settled in the tea garden town of Palampur, about 220 km from
state capital Shimla, is pinning hopes on the Supreme Court where his
petition has been listed for next hearing on August 25.
The apex court has asked the government to make its stand clear through an affidavit by the next date of hearing.
His
plea is for issuing directions to the government that his son's torture
by the Pakistan Army be referred to the International Court of Justice
(ICJ).
Captain Saurabh Kalia, of the 4 Jat Regiment, was the
first Indian Army officer to report the incursion by the Pakistan army
on Indian soil in Kargil region.
He and five soldiers - Arjun
Ram, Bhanwar Lal Bagaria, Bhika Ram, Moola Ram and Naresh Singh - were
on patrol at the Bajrang Post in Kaksar sector of Jammu and Kashmir when
they were taken captive by the Pakistani army on May 15, 1999.
They were tortured for weeks before being killed. Their mutilated bodies were handed over to the Indian authorities on June 9.