Much has been written about the transgression of the Army Chief General V K Singh.
Let us take the issues on hand one by one.
First pertains to his fight over the Date of Birth. No one disputes that his actual DOB is in 1951, and the Army records depicting it as 1950 was a mistake. Irrespective of whether he should have had it corrected within 2 years of joining (what the heck, it was so long ago, when he was junior officer who never thought this will affect him at a later stage, and in an establishment that do not encourage people to question superiors!!), or that he accepted the DOB as 1950 twice, the fact remains that he was born in 1951, and not 1950. He had a valid case and approached the Army and the Defence Ministry to sort it out. When he did not get justice, he approached the Supreme Court, which he has a right, as a citizen of India. What is wrong in that? Everyone has the right to redress the grievance and escalate the grievance to the highest authority. When the SC gave a decision against him, he accepted it gracefully and carried on with his work. The argument that he taking the case to the SC tarnished the Army is specious, to say the least.
The second issue is his letter to PM, telling him how much the Army is under-prepared. PM is the leader of the Nation, and what is wrong with the Army Chief writing a Confidential note to him? Wasn't he doing his duty? There is no evidence that he leaked the letter. If there had been a shred of evidence, he would have been hauled up by now. Since the Government is keeping a low profile, it is fairly certain, the leak came from PMO or Defence Ministry. Let us assume for the sake of argument that the General did indeed leak the letter. Again what is wrong with that? His detractors claim that it has given the enemies of India information that they dont know. This is crap. The enemy spies know exactly what our weaknesses are, more than us, with or without the letter. Also, the Chief, and many Chiefs before him, have written to PM and Defence Minister in past, but nothing has happened. The files have been put to pasture. Who elects the PM and the Defence Minister? The Public. What is wrong in bringing it to Public - the ultimate authority's- notice. None. A good Percentage of our annual allotment goes for Defence procurement. Why shouldnt we know how the proceeds are used in reality?
The third issue pertains to the alleged bribe offer made to him a year and a half back. He brought it to the Defence Ministers notice, who did not give him the right signals to proceed. Instead, he was asked to give in writing, which he should have. But, when your Minister, who is known to be honest, dont show the interest in tackling the issue head on, dont give you the right cues, but rather give a bureaucratic answer, you tend to think twice. Perhaps he thought it fit to retreat a bit to win the war later. An error of judgement, which is understandable.
We are missing the bigger issue here. By attacking the General, we are forgetting the bigger issues that need attention - lack of flexibility in the army which makes it difficult for an aggrieved person to get justice, the corruption in defence procurements, the army totally unprepared to defend our country and the control the civilians have over the army, to the detriment of the same. If some of our top officers will compromise the quality of the equipments for a few lakhs, what commitment will they have to defending our country? And by setting a bad example, they are compromising their subordinates too.
And the politicians? Have you heard one solid action from any one in the Government as to how to tackle corruption in defence procurement? The answer is an emphatic NO.
And therein lies the tragedy.
