To be headed by leading defence expert K Subrahmanyam, the four-member committee has been asked `to review the events leading upto the Pakistani aggression in the Kargil district of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, and to recommend such measures as are considered necessary to safeguard national security.'

Briefing mediapersons after a meeting of the Union Cabinet held this evening, Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan said that the committee has been asked to submit its report within three months.

Besides Subrahmanyam, the other members of the committee, which will have its headquarters in New Delhi, are Lt Gen (retd.) K K Hazari and eminent journalist B G Verghese. Satish Chandra, who is the secretary of the National Security Council secretariat, will be its member-secretary.

Even before the conflict came to an end,the Congress and other opposition parties had taken the Vajpayee Government to task for failing to detect the incursions by Pakistani-backed forces in the region.

After the announcement of schedule for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the principal opposition party had intensified its attack by claiming that the BJP-led Government continued to look the other way despite warnings from various quarters. By deciding to appoint the inquiry committee, the Government hopes to take the sting out of the opposition campaign in the run-up to the elections. It has also ensured that the committee's composition is such that no one could raise any finger against it. Its members, the Government hopes, will be acceptable to all. `The committee,' Mahajan said, `will look into all aspects of the Kargil conflict. It will not confine itself to issues such as intelligence failure. It will also advise on prevention of such flare-ups in the future.'

According to him, the decision to appoint the committee was in keeping withthe assurances made by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, Home Minister L K Advani and Defence Minister George Fernandes. `We have always maintained that we have nothing to hide. But at the same time we have always considered national interest to be supreme,' he said.

`The Government had in the past indicated that it will not shy away from ordering a post-mortem into the conflict. But our stand has been that it could be conducted only after the war,' the Information and Broadcasting Minister observed.