The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that after the Kargil conflict was over, the Army Headquarters at New Delhi, that were stormed by controversies and massive criticism, not only for the debacle at the war front but also for the massive financial wrongdoings in the direction of procurements by army, directed all the commanders of the Kargil front to immediately submit citations for the bravery of the soldiers so that the pressure from the political circles could be minimized nonetheless to boost up the morale of the demoralized troops. These findings indicate that in the hasty compliance of strong orders from the headquarters, the commanders at Kargil made a variety of blunders and submitted many fake citations with the recommendations of top military awards including the highest and the most prestigious PVC award.
The Daily Mail’s findings reveal that the wrong citations started surfacing soon and the biggest blunder in this regard emerged when the farcical episode of PVC recipient Grenadier Yoginder Singh Yadave began to unveiled as Yoginder was found hiding at a military hospital in New Delhi while, following the fake citations of his commanders, the government of Indian awarded him with the posthumous (after death) PVC award.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that in a bid to overcome this outrageous blunder, the Indian Army begun a high-level inquiry into the “unpardonable mistake” of declaring one of the Param Vir Chakra winners, Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav, dead, though he was actually an absconder and hiding in an army hospital in New Delhi. Senior army officers said it was at the Srinagar headquarters of the 15 Corps or Northern Command headquarters in Udhampur that the goof up happened.
These findings further indicate that the then Indian Army Chief General V.P Malik tendered an apology, while the Defence Ministry accepted the mistake. Chief of Army Staff General VP Malik ordered an inquiry and warned of severe punishment for those responsible for the outrageous mistake but nothing has happened till today but on the other side, Yoginder was not deprived of the award until the outcomes of the inquiry committee, which never came up with any conclusion, enabling an absconder to enjoy the honour of being PVC recipient, though he has never been any out of the turn promotion etc, to recognize his “bravery” while such promotions and benefits otherwise come as a package for a PVC recipient in India.
The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that Indian army leadership was put on a flashing burner by the opposition parties in the parliament not only for outrageous display of combat at Kargil but also for huge financial wrongdoings in procurements, during the conflict. These findings indicate that after pointing out glaring lapses and improprieties in purchase of specialised mountain warfare equipment for the Kargil war, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India had said that even non high-altitude weaponry deals were pushed through by the Defence Ministry in the name of Operation Vijay. “Though deployment of T-72 tanks was not possible at high altitude,” the defence ministry had used the pretext of Operation Vijay and the relaxation of procedures to push through a deal worth $27.17 million in July, 1999 for delivery of 2800 rounds of T-72 ammunition from Israel and another 7000 rounds within six months, the CAG said in its report tabled in the Indian Parliament .
The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that T-72 ammunition was not the sole case of ‘non-emergent requirement’ pushed through as another glaring example was the import of 644 items of spares for combat engineers tractors from the Royal Ordinance, United Kingdom in January, 2000 at an estimated cost of 439,810.33 pounds sterling. Saying that out of 644 items, 475 spares were only bin items, the CAG had stated that the deal was gone through without reviewing the justification for bin samples for spares included in the contract, even though these combat tractors were due to be phased out by 2003. “Thus even unnecessary and non-emergent requirements were pushed through Operation Vijay procurement,” the CAG said in its report. The Daily Mail’s findings indicate the CAG had pointed out that the deal went through even though sufficient funds were not available under the relevant head for purchase of ammunition adding that relaxed procedure for Kargil operations were used to push through the deal.
Shocking stuff... Scandal galore........ Shameful.