Indian army soldiers going to fight in a border conflict last year in Kashmir had to bribe railway staff for train tickets, Defense Minister George Fernandes has revealed.
"I was told by officers, including majors, that they bribed up to 100 rupees (two dollars) extra to railway staff for getting reservations," to get to the Kashmir war zone of Kargil last year, he said in a speech late Saturday that touched on the country's endemic corruption.
Some 1,000 troops on both sides were killed in the conflict, sparked by the infiltration of Pakistan-backed troops in the Indian zone of the divided state.
"The army officials identified themselves and also told they were going to the battlefield and they may not come back alive," but the railway staff still demanded bribes, Fernandes said.
"You pay a bribe to get everything done and that is a worrying trend," he said.
Fernandes also said unemployment was fuelling insurgency in India.
"Unemployment is the mother of all insurgencies and we have found how educated unemployed youths of the country were being used by Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to fight a proxy war against us", Fernandes said.
"The unemployed youths were being paid for such tasks by the ISI."
About 150 million Indian youths are unemployed, of whom 40.3 million are educated professionals -- GUWAHATI (AFP)
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