An embarrassed Indian Army was on Thursday forced to apologise to Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah over a press note earlier that criticised his government for removing bunkers in Srinagar. The Army said the press note was issued inadvertently by a junior officer.
Lt. Gen. B.S. Jaswal, GOC-in-C of Northern Command, had “apologised” to the chief minister, an Army spokesperson said in Kashmir, adding that Gen. Jaswal and Mr Abdullah “share extremely cordial relations and have best of functional rapport”.
The apology was tendered swiftly after Mr Abdullah complained to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the Army’s public criticism of his government’s policies.
In New Delhi, however, when asked about the Army’s voicing of concerns over thinning out of troops from the state and in favour of retaining the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in its current form, minister of state for defence M.M. Pallam Raju defended the Army, saying it had the right to voice its opinion.