Released on: September 26, 2008, 1:04 pm

Press Release Author: Thomas Vrald

Industry: Defense

Press Release Summary: Amidst public applause Brig Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, Maha Vir
Chakra has filed a defamation suit for only Re 1 on both Bawa and Atma who said that
the battle never took place.

Press Release Body: Controversy over the authenticity of the famous battle of
Longewala in India's western sector in 1971 refuses to die down. The war hero
credited with the splendid victory at that time has gone to court saying people were
trying to tarnish his image.
Brig (retd) Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, who has filed a defamation suit of Re.1 against
Air Marshal (retd) M.S. Bawa and Maj Gen (retd) Atma Singh, says "the two of them
were not there" while he was fighting the war.
"My only ground for filing the suit is that I was there fighting the war and the two
of them were not there. I do not want their money - that is why I have demanded Re.1
as compensation. I just want justice," Chandpuri said.

"Bawa made scandalous and malicious statements, tarnishing the image of not only the
plaintiff but also the entire Alpha Company," Chandpuri said in the petition.
The Longewala battle was fought in the western sector - in Rajasthan - during the
India-Pakistan war in 1971.

Chandpuri, at that time a major who was leading just 100 men, had frustrated a
formidable attack by a Pakistani brigade (some 2,800 troops) backed by an armoured
regiment of 45 tanks. Chandpuri was given the Maha Vir Chakra. His company 23 Punjab
won six gallantry awards.
However, a controversy was sparked off in February this year after Maj Gen Atma
Singh, who won the Vir Chakra at Longewala, alleged that no ground battle was fought
and the army had merely rehearsed it on a sand model after the ceasefire to cover up
the incompetence of senior military commanders.
He also claimed that it was the Indian Air Force (IAF) that actually crushed the
enemy forces. Air Marshal Bawa, who was commanding the Jaisalmer base from where IAF
Hunter fighter aircraft operated in the battle, also contested the army's claim and
reportedly said: "The services were the only organisation with some credibility. The
army has turned that apart by faking the entire operation."
According to army records, Chandpuri and his men - equipped with recoilless guns,
medium machine guns, 81 mm mortars and small arms - had engaged enemy armour at the
post of Longewala in Rajasthan on the intervening night of December 4 and 5, 1971.
The battle is part of the curriculum taught to senior officers in the higher command
course at the Army War College and has been immortalised by the Bollywood super-hit
"Border".

Taking note of this, Chandpuri said in his petition: "For over two decades, from
1971 to 1997 (when the film 'Border' was released), no controversy was ever raised
on the battle by anyone. Perhaps the limelight given to me created heartburn with
the defendant (Air Marshal Bawa).
"In order to give vent to this heartburn, he in the year 1997 made malicious and
scandalous statements against me and the Alpha Company, doubting the factual status
regarding the battle."
According to the petition, Bawa and Singh repeated their "malicious and scandalous
remarks"

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