Industrialist and Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday flayed the Centre for telling the Supreme Court on affidavit that it did not intend to take up the torture and killing of Captain Saurabh Kalia by Pakistan forces to International Court of Justice (ICJ). He said the Centre should stand for the soldiers and their families and not to the “diplomatic niceties.”
Rajeev was in the forefront of raising the issue of Army officer Kalia, who was tortured and killed by Pakistan Army during Kargil war in 1999. In SC, the Centre said as India and Pakistan have a bilateral agreement, the issue can not be taken to ICJ.
“Along with Capt Kalia’s family and thousands of Indians in and out of uniform, I am deeply disappointed with the response to this issue. An issue that involves the torture and murder of a soldier, and who was committed to serving and defending the nation... deserves a response far better than the one that we have seen.
“While I appreciate there are diplomatic niceties that tend to cloud judgement of what is right or wrong sometimes, I reiterate the responsibility of a Government to stand by its soldiers and people cannot be swept aside. To those that inflict terror, the Government must adopt a ‘Never Forget, Never Forgive, and Relentlessly Pursue’ approach to ensure that these crimes are never repeated,” said Rajeev.