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Former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh believes that Nawaz Sharif could have been aware of Pakistan army's aggression in Kargil in 1999 despite the insistence by the then Pakistan Prime Minister that he did not know about it.
"I do not think a Prime Minister can remain unaware," Singh told PTI.
He was responding when asked whether he believes Sharif's contention that he had no knowledge about the Pakistan army's aggression that led to a three-month conflict.
About the then Pakistan Army Chief Gen Pervez Musharraf claiming that Sharif knew about the Kargil action, Singh responded, "So why should we enter that disputation? It is a pointless disputation... It is for Mian saheb himself to answer this question."
Singh said he does not want to say that he disbelieves Sharif's contention "because then I am charging the Prime Minister of prevarication."
Singh, the then External Affairs Minister, has written about the Kargil episode in his new book 'India At Risk'.
He suggested that the aggression by the Pakistan army was Musharraf's machinations aimed at scuttling the reconciliation effort attempted by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's bus ride to Lahore.
"We had attempted to set a course and Musharraf altered that course. We are back to the same situation," he observed.
Singh, who was part of the bus ride in February 1999, said Vajpayee's bold decision had caught the imagination globally.
"(But) There were elements particularly in the Pak army that had set its heart on to bringing India down to its knees... That is what has happened and we had Kargil episode (that) eventually led to Musharraf taking over the country," he said.
