Govt, army at loggerheads over VK Singh's petition

A day after Army chief general VK Singh moved a writ petition in the Supreme Court — questioning the government’s decision to treat his date of birth as 10 May 1950 instead of 10 May 1951 — it is clear that the civilian leadership and the army file are at loggerheads even on the issue of him having filed the petition in court.

Army men defend the right of Gen Singh to move court against the government’s decision, while civilian administrators say they do not see the need for the general to have gone public with his differences with the government.

Retired major general Satbir Singh, on talk show India@9, backed the army chief’s decision to go to court. “It is the personal decision of the chief of army staff. It is his integrity at stake and no soldier would like to be questioned,” he told Rajdeep Sardesai on the show.

Retired navy chief, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat termed the decision of the government as “undermining the chain of the military command”. He told CNN-IBN on a talk show Monday night, “It is forcing out a chief, undermining his tenure…forcing him into early retirement. Undermining the chain of the military command for the last eight months, destabilising the army and the armed forces.”

However, former diplomat, KC Singh, is not impressed. He is of the opinion that the Army chief is making a big deal of it and if it was really about his honour then he should have raised the issue earlier.

“He has turned the issue into a matter of honour, the defence ministry has not. Every service has rules regarding when and how,” he told CNN-IBN.

He cited media reports saying that whenever Singh was promoted, he was asked not to raise the issue and he even agreed in writing to the same. “Now his defenders are saying he was forced to do that. If honour was involved, he should have resigned then,” said the former diplomat.

Commodor Uday Bhaskar, senior fellow at the National Martime Foundation, termed the events as “very unfortunate and undesirable”.

“My own reading is that these errors have been compounded from Army HQs,” he said. “In the first instance — when there was this mismatch between the AG’s branch and the MS in terms of the year of the birth. For 30 odd years why was this not corrected?” he asked.

Bhaskar however was also of the view that the Ministry of Defence was also responsible for the issue taking the scale it has. “When the matter was referred to the Ministry of Defence — it does appear that the Ministry of Defence — is also culpable for having dealt with this in a rather indifferent or cavalier manner. So what we are seeing in the process is the office is being diminished, the individual’s image is being tarnished by various quarters,” he said, adding, “The situation is heads you win and tails I lose between the Army chief and the government — which is very tragic.”

While conceding to Bhaskar’s point, that the civilian government does work inefficiently and calling AK Antony “the master of inaction”, KC Singh, said that the army chief had “burnt his effectability with the Army HQs and the MoD” by first expending his resources on a personal matter like the discrepancy over his date of birth and then taking the government to court. Thus, losing the goodwill of the authorities to be able to get “anything that he needs to get done for the soldier”.

But, retired brigadier and 1971 war veteran, General Mahalingam pointed out that going to the Supreme Court was essential on the part of the army chief to clear the minds of and restore the faith of the troops in the institution. “If he doesn’t go to the courts, it will effect the Army’s morale,” he told CNN-IBN.

The Congress today, however, downplayed the move. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “If this has happened then it is between the person who has gone to the court and the court. How can we comment on this matter?”

The government today even filed a caveat in he Supreme Court against any ex-parte order on the petition of Army Chief Gen VK Singh challenging the decision over his date of birth. An application was filed by the Ministry of Defence urging the apex court not to pass any order on Singh’s petition without hearing it. The caveat as filed through counsel TA Khan.

This is the first time ever than an Indian Army chief is challenging the government — who it comes under.

General Singh had contended that his date of birth was 10 May 1951 on the basis of his matriculation certificate, the Adjutant General’s branch records, his military ID, license and passport — while the ministry said it will go by records in the military’s secretary branch where his date of birth is mentioned as 10 May 1950.

The general had earlier moved the MoD with two statutory representations. But on 30 December, Defence Minister AK Antony rejected his statutory representation which ended all the internal appeal options on the subject for the General. By this decision of the government, Gen Singh will have to retire on 31 May this year.

VK Singh had earlier remained non-commital on whether or not he will move court to seek redressal on the matter of his age row. Two days later, at a press conference in Delhi, he said that the matter was about ‘integrity and honour’ for him and that he had tackled it in the “organisational interest” even as he stayed mum on the course of action he would take.

As the SC mulls over General VK Singh’s plea, he may seek a stay on the process of appointing his successor.

Watch CNN-IBN’s India@9 with Rajdeep Sardesai: