[Reader-list] Kashmir:Congress sulks over Army's views

[Aditya Raj Baul]

 Kashmir:Congress sulks over Army's views

Santwana Bhattacharya
Express News Service
First Published : 13 Jul 2010 02:34:41 AM IST
Last Updated : 13 Jul 2010 04:08:15 PM IST

NEW DELHI: Taking a rather dim view of the Army Chief V K Singh’s
comment to the media that the local administration in J&K frittered
away the opportunity and goodwill created by the Armed Forces over the
past few years, the Congress called it his ‘personal view, which would
have been better aired in privacy.’

Already battling the sudden spurt of violence that brought the Army
out on the streets of Srinagar after a gap 10 years, the Congress can
ill-afford a dig from the Army chief on the failure of the civil
administration of which it is a part and the prime prop.

Coming as it did in conjunction with the virtual boycott of Chief
Minister Omar Abdullah’s all-party meeting by the main Opposition PDP,
the Congress found the criticism of the local administration and the
political class hard to swallow or ignore.

That the Centre would be looking into the issue was apparent from the
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari’s rather curt statement - “It is
for the government to take cognizance. The matter is in the purview of
the government.”

What was really damning was the Army Chief’s rather critical comment
that ‘the situation has been brought to a particular level when other
initiatives should have started to make way for betterment.’