Modi govt backtracks on Saurabh Kalia's death, says moving ICJ not practical

In a complete change in its stance, the Modi government has now refused to move the International Court of Justice against the alleged torture of Kargil martyr Captain Saurabh Kalia which eventually led to his death.

The government has said that the Centre cannot seek international probe into the death of Captain Saurabh Kalia because moving the ICJ against Pakistan over this issue will not be ‘practical’, according to IBNLive .

To MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar’s question in Parliament, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh had said, “The attention of the international community has already been drawn to these heinous and barbaric acts of Pakistan army including through a statement to the UN general assembly in New York on September 22, 1999, and to the Commission of Human Rights in April 2000. The possibility of seeking legal remedies through the international courts was also thoroughly examined, but not found feasible,” according to Daily Mail .

NK Kalia, the father of the martyred soldier, had moved the Supreme Court in 2012, demanding an international probe.

“It is a very confusing policy of the government. I was hopeful that the new government would take up this issue with pakistan as well as at the international level. So far, nothing concrete has come up,” he told CNN-IBN.

“I am not very happy with the way these politicians handle the sacrifice of my son,” he said.

Captain Kalia and five other soldiers - sepoys Arjunram Baswana, Mula Ram Bidiasar, Naresh Singh Sinsinwar, Bhanwar Lal Bagaria and Bhika Ram Mudh - were captured alive on 15 May, 1999 by Pakistani troops when they had gone out for patrol duty in Kaskar area of Kargil.

They were kept in captivity where they were allegedly tortured and their bodies were mutilated. Their bodies were handed over to the Indian side after 15 days.

Captain Kalia’s ear drums were punctured with hot rods, his eyes were punctured and his limbs and genitals had been cut off. Most of his teeth and bones had also been broken.

The BJP government’s statement on this issue comes as a surprise given that in October 2013, reacting sharply to the then UPA government’s statement that it is not taking up the case of Captain Kalia, BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters, “It is a shocking reality. You have taken the example of Captain Saurabh Kalia but on many issues which are as grave as this, we have repeatedly found the government not taking them up seriously at the ministry level.”

“The sovereign authority with which you may persuade a neighbouring state about issues which are very critical to your national honour are being neglected…This government is definitely neglecting issues of Indian state’s honour and Indian people’s honour,” Sitharaman had then said.

(With inputs from PTI)