General VK Singh expresses ire over Army Chief-General Dyer row

Former Army Chief General V. K. Singh on Wednesday expressed his ire over scholar Partha Chatterjee's article where he compared incumbent Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat with British Genral Dyer.

"Saddened and angered by what Partha Chatterjee and Congress leaders are saying about General Bipin Rawat," General Singh said in a tweet.

Earlier, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu slammed Chatterjee for comparing General Rawat with Dyer who was responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar and asserted that drawing such parallels is simply 'atrocious'.

Speaking at a press conference here, Naidu said, "Chatterjee is only trying to find fault in the Indian Army which is doing a great job to protect the unity, integrity and security of the country. They only want to condemn the army but never want to come in support of it. Comparing Major Gogoi's incident and then General Rawat's observation to General Dyer is total atrocious and height of perversion".

However, despite facing flak for his article, Chatterjee stated that he stands firm with his comparison of General Rawat with Dyer.

"I have made my arguments as clearly and precisely as I could in my article. If I need to clarify or change anything then I will write again. I stand by what I wrote. I am not seeking any publicity," Chatterjee told ANI.

Chatterjee in his article wrote that Kashmir is witnessing its ' General Dyer' moment.

This article by Chatterjee came after General Rawat extended support for Major Leetul Gogoi over the human shield controversy in Kashmir.

"There are chilling similarities between the justifications advanced for the actions of the British Indian army in Punjab in 1919 and those being offered today in defence of the acts of the Indian army in Kashmir," Chatterjee wrote in his article.

-ANI