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| Army Chief row raises questions | | | It is a great pity that the tenure of
the Chief of Army Staff, Gen. V.K.
Singh, should close in a haze of disturbing controversy. The general is due to retire in May this year, but his term as head of the Army is as good as over. Should he serve out his remaining weeks, he is unlikely to be capable of doing any good at this stage.
No platform exists to allow for such a possibility. The worst case scenario is that his remaining actions may have the sorry effect of reinforcing the impression that he courts needless controversy, of leaving the sense that he bequeaths on his successor a faction-ridden force, and of communicating to the public the idea that the government has stood by as a helpless onlooker in the face of unusual developments, including the highlighting of corruption in defence supplies.
There have been a number of high-profile controversies involving Army Chiefs in the past, even in the days of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. But at no point has there been mud-slinging on this regrettable scale.
It was sad to see in the Rajya Sabha all political parties expressing shock at the actions of the Chief, and several asking for his dismissal. Such a development is unprecedented.
The government appears to be treading with extreme caution. Defence minister A.K. Antony seems particularly concerned that the dubious record of relieving the Chief of his charge is not set. In the NDA period, defence minister George Fernandes had sacked the Chief of Naval Staff, Adm. Vishnu Bhagwat. The episode was ugly, but the Indian Navy is a smaller force and the polity lived with the development. The Army is a different matter. If it does transpire that Gen. V.K. Singh or his camp followers did have a hand in leaking to the media his top-secret letter to the Prime Minister, the defence minister's hand may well be forced.
Although thought to be upright, Gen. Singh did not even put in place systems to check corruption.
The age controversy consumed his time. On his recent allegation that he was offered a bribe of `14 crores, former defence minister Jaswant Singh mentions in an article two questions raised by Arun Singh, who was once minister of state for defence: that if the COAS advised Antony not to pursue this case, why did he go to the defence minister in the first place; and if he was sure the Army vehicles, which the bribe-giver was promoting, were "substandard", why wasn't its supply stopped right away?
The sorry saga has to be excavated. But ways have also to be found to quickly get the military equipment whose lack is hampering the Army. |
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