KL Report
SRINAGAR
A Sikh group, Dal Khalsa in a sharp reaction to the revelations made by Gen V K Singh that J&K ministers are on the payroll of Army, has said that “the former general has blown the lid and exposed the dirty side of the Indian democratic system”.
In a statement issued to press from its headquarter at Amritsar, it termed “the (Indian) democracy as a sham” and held Indian political system and the leadership responsible for ‘using and misusing the army in the country’s internal crisis’.
The statement quoted H S Dhami, Dal Khalsa chief saying “the people in J&K who are awakened and also the sufferers knew in their guts that the army was ruling the disputed territory by proxy”, adding, “however, now the ‘hidden fact’ has become talk of the town, thanks to former general‘s deliberate outburst.”
The statement further said that earlier, there was a popular perception that the ‘Directors of the Intelligence agencies were more powerful then elected Chief Minister in Kashmir’. However, V. K. Singh has added another dimension by revealing that ‘so-called elected legislators in J&K were dummies being remote-controlled by the army’.
According to the statement, H S Dhami maintained, “what Gen V K Singh has revealed is merely ‘the tip of the iceberg’, let the President of India constitute a Commission headed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court to dig out the truth”.
He has said that V K Singh’s version though in different context has proved “what the pro-freedom groups, the human and civil rights groups have been shouting from day one that the Indian establishment has installed a dummy government in J&K to hoodwink the international community”.
The rebel group’s statement added quoting Dhami “the elections and the governments formed in so-called disturbed states had always been a façade. In real terms, writ of the security establishment runs as it helps them to unleash the reign of terror on the people without taking blame for all that ‘went wrong’.”
He described the impunity (AFSPA) granted to the para-military and the military forces as one of the major reason that pushes the army to carry out extra-constitutional work.