By Yashwardhan Joshi
The Indian Army is facing “an enemy from within’’, while its chief is fighting his battle far away from the battlefield. The enemy, taking the form of corruption, is corroding the integrity of one of India’s finest institutions as the Army’s reputation gets besmirched by scam after scam. And General Vijay Kumar Singh has become the first Army Chief to sue the Government as he takes his battle to the Supreme Court to settle his date of birth issue.
The Army’s image suffered a heavy blow when the multi-crore rupee Adarsh housing society scam was unearthed in 2010 in Mumbai, in which Army personnel allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy with politicians and bureaucrats to change the composition of the housing society originally meant for Kargil war heroes.
Now two years later, another land scam has surfaced to spoil that image. On January 31, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the residences of former Army vice-chief Lt Gen Noble Thamburaj and former defence estates officer of Pune circle S R Nayyar, besides the office of Kalpatru Builders in connection with alleged irregularities in the development of defence land in Pune cantonment.
According to a CBI inquiry, Thamburaj, who was Southern Army commander when the irregularities took place in 2008, and Nayyar, transferred a bungalow on the defence land to the builder in violation of the terms of lease, thus causing pecuniary advantage to the tune of Rs 46 crore to the builder without any public interest. Thamburaj thus became one of the senior most officers of the armed forces to have been indicted by a CBI inquiry.
Last year, Nayyar was arrested for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to forge papers to lay claim to 69 acres of Army land worth Rs 46 crore at Lohegaon in Pune. His link is also being established in the Adarsh housing society scam as the CBI raid at his residence last month has yielded papers relating to a society flat bought in the name of a vegetable vendor.
Even as the Army is grappling with its ‘’internal enemy’’, its chief has opened another front, to fight a legal battle with the Government. On January 16, Gen V K Singh, in an unprecedented move, filed a petition against the Government in the apex court to establish his claim that he was born on May 10, 1951. Calling it a ‘’battle of honour’’, Gen Singh has challenged the Government which maintains that his ‘’officially recognised’’ date of birth is May 10, 1950.
The Government says that 1950 is the year noted in the records of the Military Secretary’s office—in charge of postings and appointments—on the basis of which Gen Singh got his last three promotions, including that of the Army chief.
Gen Singh, on the other hand, claims that he was born in 1951 which can be verified from his matriculation certificate—a legally acceptable document to establish proof of age. The year has also been recorded by the Adjutant General’s office– the manpower department.
The general’s main line of defence has been that he was compelled in 2007 by the then military secretary and the Army chief to accept 1950 as his birth year in writing. In his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Gen Singh states that a clerk, who filed his UPSC form, inadvertently noted the year as 1950, and alleges that the subsequent game plan was orchestrated through persons who benefit if the date remains May 10, 1950.
He also filed a petition to Defence Minister A K Antony, enclosing opinion of two former Supreme Court chief justices in his favour. When his petition was rejected by the Defence Ministry, on the advice of Attorney General G E Vahanvati, on the ground that the amendment to the date of birth was not legally tenable, Gen Singh filed a statutory complaint, insisting that he was born in 1951.
The Defence Ministry rejected his complaint, again on the advice of the Attorney General, and ordered the Adjutant General– the Army’s official record keeper– to correct the year of birth as 1950 as maintained by the Military Secretary’s office.
The Army chief then dragged the Government to court. The Supreme Court slammed the Government for violating the principles of natural justice in determining the age by following the attorney general’s advice twice to reject Gen Singh’s representation. It has given the Government time till February 10 to find a way out when the matter will again come up for hearing. Round 1 may have gone to the general, but it has been a huge embarrassment as the sordid saga is played out in the public domain.
Though the issue was flagged off by the defence ministry in 2006, it continued to fester on account of shabby follow-up. At the core of the issue, perhaps, lay the ugly truth: Of manipulation of promotions and seniority at higher levels. In a rash of allegations, a recurrent theme is that a strong lobby within the Army Headquarters wants someone from a minority community to become the chief.
If 1950 is accepted as Gen V K Singh’s year of birth, then he retires in May this year, and Lt Gen Bikram Singh becomes the Army chief, according to seniority.But if Gen V K Singh’s year of birth is taken as 1951 and he retires in 2013, then his successor should be Lt Gen K T Patnaik. Whoever emerges winner in this bruising confrontation between Gen Singh and the defence establishment, the biggest casualty will be the institution of the chief of the Army staff and the reputation of the admired force. But a battle lost is also a great lesson on how to win the war. The scams and the age row can well serve a useful purpose—an introspection in the Indian Army. (News Agency)
