New Delhi, June 01, 2025 (ANI): On statements made by CDS Gen Anil Chauhan in an interview in Singapore, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said, "... It would have been better that what he has spoken, the Defence Minister should have said it in the two all-party meetings he had chaired... Whatever Gen Chauhan has said, this information should have been shared with the opposition leaders, and a special session of the Parliament should have been convened... We had to wait for General Chauhan to make these revelations from Singapore... Three days after the Kargil war ended, Prime Minister Vajpayee set up a Kargil Review Committee... The report was prepared by four members, including the father of EAM Dr S Jaishankar... This report was tabled in the Parliament... There are military issues which only the military can discuss, but there are political issues... This nexus between China and Pakistan, which became very apparent during Op Sindoor, needs to be addressed in the all-party meeting with the Prime Minister in the chair... Why did we have to wait for statements from Singapore? We are supposed to be the mother of democracy... The issues that Gen Chauhan raised are critical and they impinge not just on military strategy, they impinge on foreign policy, economic strategy, and diplomatic strategy...
00:00So how do you see, after the statement of CDS, General Chauhan, now the opposition parties are saying that what they were telling, it is completely being proven right.
00:18See, well, the most respected, General Chauhan, the Chief of Defence Staff, has spoken. He has spoken from Singapore. It would have been better that what he has spoken, the Defence Minister would have taken the all-party meeting, you know, two all-party meetings each had, instead of the Prime Minister.
00:39The Defence Minister did not say anything on this. It would have been better. It would have been, in keeping with our democratic traditions, if an all-party meeting had been called, the Prime Minister had chaired, and whatever General Chauhan has said, this information could have been shared with the opposition leaders.
00:56A special session of Parliament could have been convened in Lok Sabha and Rajasaba, and the same information could have been shared by the Prime Minister.
01:03We had to wait for General Chauhan to make these revelations from Singapore. And these are very serious issues, which the nation has to come to grips with.
01:14You know, three days after the Kargil War ended, on the 29th of July, 1999, the Vajpayee government set up the Kargil Review Committee.
01:24And here I have a copy, it's a 150-page report of the Kargil Review Committee.
01:29It submitted its report on 15th of December, 1999. Four members. K. Subramanyam, the Strategic Affairs Guru, the father of Dr. Jayashankar, General Hazari, B.G. Varghese, and Satish Chandra, the National Security Council.
01:45These are the signatures in the report. These are the four signatures. 150 pages.
01:50And do you know, after this report was submitted to the government, to the Vajpayee government, on the 15th of December, 1999, this was tabled in Parliament on the 23rd of February, 2000.
02:04Of course, sensitive matters had been removed, and rightly so, they should be removed.
02:08But this report, and it's called From Surprise to Reckoning, this was an analysis of what caused the Kargil War, what lessons for India.
02:19See, we have to look to the future. What are the lessons we learned? That's what General Chauhan has said in Singapore.
02:25That's what should be debated in Parliament. There are military issues, which only the military can discuss.
02:31But there are political issues. There are issues relating to political strategy, to diplomatic strategy, economic strategy, particularly in relation to China.
02:42And this nexus between China and Pakistan, which has become very apparent during Operation Sindhu.
02:49So these are political issues. So we should discuss this in all party meetings with the Prime Minister in the chair.
02:54We should discuss this in Parliament, with the Prime Minister present, in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
03:00And we didn't have to wait for statements to be made from Singapore.
03:04We are supposed to be the mother of democracy, right? We have democratic traditions.
03:10So let's respect those democratic traditions.
03:13Mr. Vajpayee wanted Prime Minister Nehru to convene Parliament when the Chinese attack was going on, in October, November, 1962.
03:21And Parliament was convened on the 8th of November, 1962.
03:24That was democratic traditions, that the leader of the opposition calls for a Parliament session and the Prime Minister responds.
03:31And the Prime Minister is sitting and listening to criticism.
03:35So let's, you know, the issues that General Chauhan has raised are very serious.
03:40And they impinge not just on military strategy, they impinge on foreign policy, they impinge on economic strategy, they impinge on our diplomatic strategy.
03:52And we must have a discussion, a responsible discussion.
03:56I think the revelations of General Chauhan yesterday in Singapore makes our demand even more relevant now.
04:04Let's have a discussion in Parliament.
04:05Let's have a discussion in an all-party meeting and let's move forward.
04:11And the outcome of the Parliament session should be a resolution, which reiterates the resolution of February 22nd, 1994, on POK.
04:21And brings in new elements, particularly this emerging, not emerged, it has no longer emerging, it has emerged.
04:29It's embedded, you know, China and Pakistan, really embedded.
04:32There's a new challenge we have to face.
04:37So we are facing China on one front and we're facing China on the other front also.
04:41It's a new challenge.
04:42But we are running record trade deficits with China.
04:45Prime Minister has given a clean chip to China on the 19th of June, 2020.
04:50These are issues that we should discuss.
04:52We are a democracy.
04:53We don't have anything to be afraid of.
04:55But, you know, General Chauhan's statements are serious.
05:00They deserve serious study.
05:03I wish that, you know, this was taken up in Parliament very soon.
05:08I wish it's taken up in all party meetings.
05:10I wish it's taken up in the standing committees.
05:12This requires political discussion also.
05:16Of course it requires military strategy.
05:19And military strategy cannot be discussed in the open.
05:22Military strategy has to be discussed amongst military professionals.
05:26But I am talking of political strategy, economic strategy, diplomatic strategy.
05:31That has to be discussed in Parliament and in all party meetings.
05:34So, my last and pertinent question is just relevant because there is discussion going on that why the Congress Party is interested in knowing the how much, how many aircrafts have been come down.
05:49No, no, no. See, yesterday.
05:50And one more thing, sir.
05:51About the, what are the apprehension of Congress Party regarding the foreign issues which are facing?
06:00No, no, no. We have raised these issues. We have raised these issues.
06:03We have raised these issues in the national interest.
06:05And these issues have been answered by General Chauhan.
06:08General Chauhan himself has said what he has said.
06:10And there is nobody who knows this information more minutely than General Chauhan, you know.
06:17So General Chauhan has said, so let's take General Chauhan, what he has said.
06:21And see, what was the Kargil Review Committee?
06:25I have read 150 pages. Anybody can read it.
06:28It's available on the Internet.
06:29It was tabled in Parliament.
06:31It's available on the Parliament website.
06:33You read it.
06:34It's a post-mortem.
06:36Plus, most importantly, what do we do next?
06:40How do we prepare ourselves?
06:41In fact, if I remember, the appointment of the CDS, one of the recommendations of the committee was that there should be a CDS.
06:50The CDS is an outgrowth of the Kargil Review Committee.
06:53There are many other recommendations on intelligence and, you know, coordination and so on and so forth and strategy.
07:00I mean, many of these issues cannot be discussed in public.
07:03So we have raised some questions.
07:05We raised questions.
07:07We see, our demand was Prime Minister should chair an all-party meeting.
07:13Two all-party meetings were held.
07:15Prime Minister did not come.
07:16Kargeji and Rahulji wrote to the Prime Minister, calling for a session of Parliament where we discussed these issues, not for fault-finding, but for taking stock.
07:29Where are we?
07:29What are the new challenges?
07:31How can we come together?
07:33How do we send a collective, a signal of collective resolve and collective will on matters of national security?
07:40The Congress Party never plays politics.
07:43But it's the BJP that has politicized operations in the world.
07:46It's Mr. Modi who, the Prime Minister, who has politicized operations in the world.
07:51We have never politicized operations, any such operations in the past.
07:55Never.
07:57We have always taken the nation into conflict.
