Union Minister VK Singh taunts P Chidambaram over his AFSPA remark

Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs, General (retired) V.K. Singh, on Saturday took a jibe at senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram's comment on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), saying the latter did not even know in what context he was making such a remark.

"I don't give much weight to what Mr. Chidambaram says. He says one thing at one time, second day he says something else. He doesn't even know in what context he was talking of," said General (retired) Singh. "Armed Forces Special Powers Act is only an enabling act. It does not give unlimited powers," he added.

Lauding the Indian Army, General (retired) Singh said: "Where mistakes occur, as it happened, the army has been quick to take action. We have seen what has happened in Himachal." Chidambaram, who yesterday welcomed the army's decision to grant life sentence to five personnel in Machil fake encounter case in Jammu and Kashmir, had called AFSPA an "obnoxious law", and said that it has no place in a modern, civilised country.

The former home minister had also asked the BJP-led government to bring a bill to amend AFSPA in the Winter Session of Parliament.