General V K Singh the former Army Chief who retired on May 31 2012 did nothing wrong in taking his age row case to the Supreme Court. The General was left with no options when all legitimate avenues open to him for redressal of his legitimate grievance, the doors were slammed in his face. When he found that the Supreme Court also skirted the issue as analysed by eminent analysts and as the General says that one of the Honourable Justices advised that the General should ‘blow with the wind’, the General directed his lawyer to withdraw the petition.
If the military hierarchy of the Indian Army starts ‘blowing with the wind’ like India’s civil bureaucracy or a ‘committed judiciary’ as Indira Gandhi desired during the Emergency, then God only can save the Indian Republic from anarchy and rampant corruption.
Indian Army veterans, an overwhelming majority have been left with the image of an Army Chief who has demitted office on ‘A MORAL HIGH” as one General puts it and as an Officer of impeccable personal honesty and courage of conviction.
As a Senior Veteran of the Indian Army having donned uniform in1957 and witnessed first-hand as a military diplomat the military hierarchies of the Armed Forces of USA, Great Britain, Japan and South Korea one is eminently qualified to pay a Veteran’s Tribute to General V K Singh and his accomplishments.
The manufactured diatribes heaped on him by media publications and reputed ones at that, were manufactured in the corridors of power evidently and fed to Editors-in-Chiefs who enjoyed a collusive linkage with the corridors of power.
General V K Singh stands vindicated that the issues he raised have not been contradicted or refuted by people in power from the Indian Army’s lack of defence preparedness, to the leakage of his TOP SECRET letter to the Prime Minister and the corruption issue, more notably the Adarsh Scam in which political bigwigs of the ruling party were involved with association of some Army Officers.
On his leaked letter to the Prime Minister about glaring deficiencies in Indian Army’s defence preparedness he stands vindicated as the Parliamentary Committee concerned with Ministry of Defence has echoed the same sentiments and some CAG Reports earlier.
The TATRA Deal too may soon develop into a major scam as there could be political ramifications lurking here too. Is it not an uncanny coincidence on the day after General V K Singh’s retirement the Chairman of the public sector BEM, the middleman PSU for TATRA announces in a press conference that he BEML had slapped a defamation case against General V K Singh. When questioned by the media whether as a Defence PSU he has obtained permission of the Ministry of Defence for doing so he non-chalantly replied that it was not required. Obviously there is more than meets the eye here. Is it the beginning of another manufactured campaign to belittle General V K Singh after retirement?
General V K Singh despite the manufactured media calumny against him has left the Indian Army transformed with latest operational doctrines to meet India’s security threats, concerted and determined disciplinary action against Indian Army hierarchy officers who seemed to have acquired the disease of corruption from the politico-bureaucratic nexus of bending rules, and setting an example of courage of conviction against all politico-bureaucratic odds. More importantly the Indian Republic stands sensitised by General V K Singh on the lack of Indian defence preparedness arising not from Indian Army drawbacks but from political and bureaucratic tardiness in not providing the Indian Army with the sinews of war-fighting. If China inflicts another 1962 debacle on India, the Indian Republic stands forewarned as to who would be responsible for such a debacle.
