I am writing to you in the aftermath of the Kargil conflict. Our armed forces have
rendered invaluable service to the country through their courage, valour and sacrifice.
They have defeated the Pakistani designs and cleared our territory of the intruders. The
whole country has risen to salute our jawans.
The Kargil conflict has already become an election issue, with both the ruling alliance
and the main opposition parties placing it high on their agenda. In the days to come, the
debate is bound to be more passionate. Under these circumstances, it is of utmost
necessity that the armed forces do not appear to take any partisan position.
This is all the more necessary since unfortunate reports had appeared in the recent
past. We saw leading armed forces personnel briefing the BJP's National Executive. Later,
we heard reports of the army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) providing logistic
and material support to the RSS programme called `Sindhu Yatra'.
Now that the conflict is over, the enemy driven back and the country has paid its
homage to the martyrs and honoured the jawans with gallantry awards, the armed forces
should, in no way, be utilised through the electronic and print media for partisan
purposes. As most of the leading government personnel, including the Defence Minister, are
candidates in the elections, it will be totally wrong and unfair to project them in
Kargil-related programmes.
I am appealing to you, the supreme commander of our armed forces, to ensure that the
non-partisan integrity of our armed forces does not come under question. This, I believe,
is in the utmost interest of our country.
