Army Chief VK Singh: the war is now inside the army

After the facade of a truce between the government and the Army chief VK Singh was shattered, the simmerings of discontent within his own force only gets louder. The army on Monday accused a three-star retired general and former head of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), of planting stories in the media about the alleged snooping of telephonic conversations of top government officials by the Army. This follows reports of an anonymous complaint received by defence secretary Shashikant Sharma about how advanced off-the-air interceptors were being used to record conversations of defence officials. A Times of India report cited the complaint as having stated that the interceptors — acquired from Ukraine purportedly for counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast — was illegally being deployed in the national capital. [caption id=“attachment_236148” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Singh had termed media reports of the complaint as “fiction”. Reuters”]  [/caption] The government is said to be looking into the veracity of the complaint. In a statement released by the Army’s headquarters on Monday, it refuted all allegations made in the anonymous letter. “The officer (Lt Gen. Tejinder Singh) along with some disgruntled serving officers of the military intelligence, against whom disciplinary and administrative actions is in the pipeline, has worked out this fictitious story,” it said, “The army strongly denies this and takes strong exception to such salacious stories coming out as news.” Singh, had on Monday, termed media reports of the complaint — about the telephone tapping to hear conversations in connection with his age row — as “fiction” . Singh has been in much muddle with the government lately, over his date of birth, affecting his tenure as Army Chief. The Army chief even took the government to the Supreme Court contending that his date of birth was 10 May 1951 and not a year earlier as the government was asserting. The Supreme Court on 10 Feb disposed his plea , saying that he had to honour his letters of 2008 and 2009 accepting his DOB as 1950. Following the court’s orders the government has challenged several of his decisions — including his request for mordenisation of the force, cancelling his visit to Israel due to 'security reasons' and last week, even announced the appointment of Lt Gen Bikram Singh as the next Army Chief. The 59-year-old Lt Gen Singh, the Eastern Army Commander, will head the 13-lakh strong force and have a tenure of just over two years till August 2014.