proportions. Some channels went to the ridiculous extent of estimating the value of land involved to further sensationalize the issue. Rational thinking was sacrificed to garner more publicity. The Army Headquarters (AHQ) added to the graveness of the case by stating that the case had brought disgrace to the Army, thereby obliquely accepting transgression and misconduct.

During the ‘coverage phase’, truth started trickling out and many media units softened their criticism. There were others who continued to question the integrity of the commanders involved and virtually ran a campaign for their conviction. AHQ chose to go along and failed to put the whole case in the correct perspective to the nation. In a first of its kind, the Corps Commander was ordered to be court-martial led on seven chargesarmy as much as the Adarsh case. During the ‘breaking news’, media went berserk tarnishing the character and military reputation of retired service chiefs and other senior commanders. The complete officer cadre of the services was projected a bunch of unscrupulous and greedy characters. It was alleged that a piece of defence land meant to rehabilitate Kargil-widows had been misappropriated by a few service and defence estate officers through falsification of records in order to construct a residential building.

Although it was a simple case of a few officers forming a society to seek allotment of land from the state government, the media chose to call it 'Kargil for Profit' scam and insisted that Kargil-widows had been swindled out of their entitlement by devious officers. Worse, the Defence Minister