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| Antony needs to accept Army Chief's plea | | | In India the Government fixes the age of
the Army Chief. In Pakistan it is the Army
Chief who fixes the age of the Government. If this is a joke that is doing rounds these days,it carries deep meaning. It is what is being witnessed in India and Pakistan. During the last three months the civilian Government headed by Asif Ali Zardari is in deep conflict and confrontation with the Army. This has generated fears that Pakistan may witness another spell of military rule. During its 64-year existence Pakistan has been under the Army rule for more years than under the civilian regime. The Army would have taken over in Pakistan had not the civil society been against any Army takeover. Even Washington was opposed to any plan on the part of the Army Chief,Ashfaq Kayani,to take over by dislodging the Zardari led Government. Not only this:Kayani had not been able to receive support from all the corps commanders. This indicates that since the wind was not favourable for an Army takeover the Chief of the Army opposed any misadventure that could have endangered his services and life.
India has never faced any threat of Army takeover but in these days there has been an unsavoury incident in the shape of a confrontation between the Army Chief, Gen.V.K.Singh, and the Government, especially the Ministry of Defence on age fixation issue. Gen.Singh has been claiming that his correct date of birth was May 1951 and not May 1950 and has been demanding necessary correction.During the past several months a number of Gen.Singh's representations to the Government,including the Defence Ministry,have been turned down forcing the Army Chief to approach the Supreme Court.Gen.Singh has won the first round when the supr eme court directed the Government to reexamine the issue by reconciliating the two borth dates. In reality the standoff between the Defence Minister, A.K.Antony,and Gen. Singh is said to have been the handiwork of some unscruplous Joint Secretary with the help of Attorney General, Goolam Vahanvati.Vahanvati has the dubious reputation of having provided legal options to the people like former Telecom Minister,A.Raja,who caused huge losses to the cuntry's exchequer in the 2-G spectrum sales.
What is intriguing is the way the Army Chief's plea for reconciliation of the two birth dates by two branches of the Army headquarters has not been entertained. The adjutant general's branch had always maintained 1951 as the birth year of Gen.Singh as the sole personnel record keeper of the Indian Army. The Military secretary's branch,which takes care of only postings of officers and annual confidence reports has no authority to commnent on the date of birth of any officer. Unfortunately the military secretary's branch always held to 1950 as the year of birth of Gen.Singh.How the military secretary's branch discovered UPSC application of 2006 of Gen. Singh is equally a mystery. People believe that there are elements within the Armed Forces,which want to settle scores with Gen.Singh for exposing scams including the Sukhna Land case and Adarsh Housing Society scam which had implicated senior military officers,some unscruplous politicians and bureaucrats. It is believed that a section of these elements have joined hands to malign Gen.Singh.They want Singh to get removed like Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat who had to leave the highest post in the navy following differences with the then Defence Minister,Geroge Fernandes. Hence it is time for A.K.Antony to take corrective measures and avoid taking a decision that could damage the dignity of the Army Chief and the institution.
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