Book release: Ex-Major pens fictional account of Kargil

Bhatnagar had passed on this information to his superiors in the form of situation reports. However, his reports were not taken cognisance of and it was only later in the year that the Pakistani intrusions were discovered in the Kargil-Dras-Batalik areas that a cogent correlation was made.
Bhatnagar’s book, through fictional characters, highlights how senior field commanders failed to correctly appreciate the situation and made knee-
jerk responses that actually played into the hands of Pakistan Army commanders.

Bhatnagar said: “My aim is not to attack any individual through this book, but to point out the larger gameplan of the Pakistan Army that had not been understood. I will subsequently write another book about my personal experiences.”
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For his efforts to highlight anomalies leading to the Kargil war, Bhatnagar had to face a controversial court martial after the war, where he was charged with disobeying a command to launch an attack with his ad-hoc company.

He had objected that his troops were fatigued having marched 55km the previous day, but his commanding officer took it amiss. Despite testimonies in his favour by his brigade commander and other witnesses during the trial and the fact that the charge of disobeying the command could not be proved, the court martial found him guilty of an additional charge.

The book was released by Rakesh Dutta of the department of Defence and National Security Studies, Panjab University. The function was attended by senior retired Army officers.