Defence ministry calls report on Army Vice Chief baseless

The Ministry of Defence today denied that it had recommended the name of the Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt General Dalbir Singh Suhag to the Prime Minister’s Office for appointment as the next Chief of Army Staff. The defence ministry said the report is “totally baseless and is hereby denied”. The report, which was filed by PTI was also published by Firstpost on Sunday. [caption id=“attachment_1489665” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag. Image courtesy PIB[/caption] As per tradition, the government announces the name of services chiefs-designate two months before the retirement of the incumbent. However, the appointment of incumbent Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh was done three months prior to the retirement of his predecessor Gen VK Singh, who had a turbulent relationship with the defence ministry and even dragged the government to the Supreme Court over his age controversy. Significantly, during the last days of his tenure as Army Chief, VK Singh had put a ‘discipline and vigilance ban’ on Lt Gen Dalbir Suhag, then 3 Corps Commander, for the “failure of command and control” as an intelligence unit under him had allegedly carried out dacoity in Jorhat in Assam outside the jurisdiction of the Corps. The ban was lifted soon after Bikram Singh took over as Army Chief and appointed Suhag as the Eastern Army Commander. Gen Bikram Singh will retire on 31 July after completing a 26-month tenure in office. With PTI input