The Story of General Rath’s Court Martial…

General Nanda's Wife

From the last 1 month the Court Martial of General Rath is a burning topic for Pakistani media. Although Western and especially Indian media has ignored it but there is not a single channel or newspaper which has missed chance to comment over this scandal. Some columnists and anchor persons have tried to prove, “In Indian army the accountability is so much clear and strong that even a 3-Star General could not avoid it”. All these persons deserve to be congratulated on improving the IMAGE of Indian army. But alas! No one has tried to bring forward the truth behind the court martial of General Rath. It is the result of mutual disputes and lobbyism present within Indian army. The first target of this lobbyism is not General Rath but General Nanda. He has been forced to resign under accuse of raping a woman 1 week before announcement of General Rath’s punishment. For being part of Ex-Indian Army Chief’s (General Deepak Kapoor) group still 2 Lt. Generals and one Major General is to be punished (announcement is expected soon). The untimely retirement of General Deepak Kapoor is also result of this internal war between Indian Generals within Indian army. The matter of General Deepak has been already discussed in detail in an article published on 27^th February 2010.

This is the internal situation of Indian army, threatening to attack Pakistan and China at the same time. Indian army! By whom cantonments have been converted into caches of latest weapons forcing the whole sub-continent to brink of destruction. Indian is army is still the biggest customer of modern arsenal. In the greed of commissions in the defense related deals Indian Generals are ready to go to any extent to show each other down. The Indian politicians are buying weapons of mass destruction just to get their part out of the bribed money.

The economies (International powers) that are dependent on sale of weapons to avoid bankruptcy are not only ready to accept all Indian conditions but also silent on India’s aggressiveness in South Asia and tortures on minorities. Due to this criminal silence of Western imperialist forces, Hindu Extremism is penetrating within Indian army (involvement of Higher Command of Indian army in terrorism is proof of this), while on the other hand structure of Indian govt. effected by Hindu Caste System is forcing Naxalites and Maoists towards separation. In order to suppress these freedom-movements Indian govt. is using same inhuman practices as it has been using in Held Kashmir for last 63 years.

Before discussing punishment of General Rath lets discuss case of General Nanda in brief. This will help in understanding the ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM of Indian army. Engineer-In-Chief of Indian Army General A.K. Nanda went to Israel on an official visit along with other staff and their wives (Look at the situation that even wives of Indian Generals participate in the defense related deals). General Nanda was still in Israel but a case has been registered against him for raping wife of his Technical Secretary. As soon as he returned from Israel, he was handed over a charge sheet accusing him of rape. He was astonished that what he should say in his defense for a sin that he has never committed. However he wrote down the reply rejecting accuse. This clarification was rejected by General V.K. Singh and General Nanda was forced to choose between 2 options; “Either resign or get ready for Court Martial”. 59 year old General Nanda was aware that alleged rape cannot be proved against him medically but example of General Deepak Kapoor was also in front of him (General Deepak Kapoor has been declared as deaf by Indian Army doctors and has been forced to quit). Moreover General Nanda was also aware of Israeli role in the matter of General Deepak Kapoor. So General Nanda decided to resign in spite of resistance from his wife. In a very magnificient get-together General Nanda was sent off from army with due respect. After the get-together General Nanda’s wife told a journalist, “General Nanda is not capable of raping a woman (having sex)”. When the scandal of General Nanda was disclosed in newspapers, some journalists raised the case of Female Army Officer, Captain Kaur. She had complained to the Chief of the Indian Army in July 2010 that in the Head Quarter of Army Supply Core (ASC) Hariyana, she was raped by the GOC, when she went to his office to complaint against immoral attitude of her Battalion Commander and other officers. However in the inquiry it was said that the female army officer has passed on a fake complaint just to defame higher officials, so her complaint was rejected. Not only Captain Kaur, Captain Neha Rawat had been also raped by her GOC. In this incident the victim, Captain Neha wrote in a written complaint to Commander of 14^th Core, “Commander of Ladakh Division, General A.K. Laal called her in his office for official work in the office timings. After arriving there AOC left in his room. She was in her uniform and could not imagine that GOC of her father’s age will rape her. GOC did not ask her to sit down but rose from chair and held her. She yelled and cried for help but no one came to rescue her, no one out of General’s staff or army guards out there. After being raped she walked out of the General’s office in torn out uniform no one asked her that why she is crying or who has made her in this condition”. Raping of woman by Indian army is not new or first case.

General Nanda after resigning

However throough the above mentioned scandals one can easily understand the situation of accountability in Indian army, General Nanda is being expelled just for alleged accuse while on the other hand on duty raped female army officers are not given any justice, this clearly shows that how much deep rooted lobbyism is in Indian army.

History of Indian army is full of such financial scams and blunders especially regarding the deals of weapons or defense related equipment. But internal disputes over black money of bribe between generals and lobbyism in Indian army were disclosed in 1999 after Kargil war in the scandal of Sandal wood coffins. Actually 1200 coffins made of Sandal wood were allegedly purchased for $2500 each from a company run by a retired Indian army officer. Afterwards it was disclosed that these coffins were made of common wood costing $75 each. After investigations it was revealed that in this fraud of 3 million dollars Defense Minister George Fernandus, 1 Lt. General, 2 Major Generals and Brigadier was involved. But as a Major General did not get his part in this fraud so he unveiled the whole financial scam. In order to investigate the Scandal an inquiry committee was formed but what happened after it no one knows. Even Indian media did not dare to unveil the truth.

Captain Kaur: Her GOC raped her but she cannot get justice

The second incident of corruption in the purchase of weapons was unveiled in 2001. on 14^th March 2001 a news website named as TEHELKA.COM published recorded scenes of bribe taking by Ministers and Generals on its website. In this video of 2 hours famous polticians of India, moreover Major General P.S. Chaudhary, Major General Hamesh Nahen, Major General Narindar Singh was filmed receiving cash as commission in advance in the purchase of weapons. Video also included the conversation as well. After the deal was finalized, payments were made; a costly get together with prostitutes and alcoholic drinks was also part of the video. The ruling BJP forced 6 of its Ministers to quit and in order to suppress this scandal ISI was blamed for leakage of these videos. But opposition parties rejected BJP’s stance and said, “it is the result of internal lobbyism in Indian army and unequal distribution of bribed money, due to this a group unveiled the whole scam as a conspiracy so that other group gets punished”. Blaming ISI as a master mind for whatever happens in India is not new, but in contrast to this the reality is that two journalists of Tehelka.com met Indian Generals disguised as dealers of weapons. They discussed with them the deals of weapons and commissions. They tried to convince Generals to purchase by giving costly gifts and cash. After the deal was finalized the bribed was paid in advance. In this deal Additional Director General P.S. Chaudhary related to Weapon purchase was on the top of the list. But the question is how can the owners of Tehelka.com and weekly Tehelka afford billions of rupees to be given as bribe and much more money to be spent on a wealthy party? Where did the money received as a commission go, was it deposited in Indian national treasury or became victim of other corrupts? However this is not our headache but of the Indian public. But another important question is, representatives of Tehelka completed their activity in 2 and a half months so where were secret agencies of Indian army during this whole period? Why they could not know that two journalists disguised as weapon dealers are dealing with Generals carrying billions of rupees in their bags. The truth is that a group consisting of 1 Lt. General, 2 brigadiers and one Colonel was behind this activity of Tehelka. This group arranged secret meeting for these journalists with Indian Generals. Does not this show that an internal drift is going in between RAW and MI and other secret agencies of India? One of these secret agencies provided billions of rupees to Tehelka along with recording facilities (Just like as in dispute between General Deepak Kapoor and General V.K. Singh in which RAW was on one General’s side while MI was supporting the other one). But in order to misguide the general public of India as usual ISI has been blamed.

Major Nirviskar Singh

Afterwards when agents of Tehelka were harassed they disclosed that still they have video of 98 hours in length.  So in the name of inquiry Indian army retrieved this video of 100 hours; both of these journalists were arrested under the law of PUTA. The whole of these scandals aside but why  the Pakistani appreciators of Indian army’s justice in case of General Rath Court Martial kept silent over such financial scam unveiled by tehelka.com? However let’s see another sample of corruption in Indian army:

On the December 2010 Major Narvikar Singh belonging to RAW was sent back to his parent unit “7^th Cavalry” as a punishment. This was punishment for making illegal assets of 93 millions. These assets were acquired by Major Singh during 2005 to 2009 while he was serving as ADC to Governor General of Punjab. From there he was transferred to RAW. Astonishingly in this corruption the involved were 3 top bureaucrats;

1. Director Tourism Vesvik Aatrey,
2. Interior Secretary Punjab Krishan Mohan, and
3. Advisor of Governor General of Punjab.

The money looted by these bureaucrats was in addition to these 93 millions. After this scandal was disclosed, CBI arrested the 3 bureaucrats and filed an FIR against them but they did not arrest Major Singh because it was duty of army to bring him to justice. On this biased attitude of CBI when protests were made; a higher official of CBI told journalists on the condition of secrecy of name. Whatever he said was published by Indian newspapers as it is without disclosing his name;

            ““RAW OFFICERS TRAINED TO DODGE INTERROGATIONS”

As part of their training, the officers posted in RAW are trained to dodge interrogations. Besides their training in infiltrations and ex-filtration, RAW officers are specifically trained in the act of facing or evading interrogation, in case they are caught” said a CBI Officer.

Is not this an interesting story? Besides it makes clear that who provided billions of rupees to tehelka.com to trap Indian Generals…

TO BE CONTINUED…



Part-II
2nd Episode

Scanned Urdu Copy:

Written By Khalid Baig,

Published in Daily Nawa-i-Waqt,

Date: 12 February 2011.