FOR HONOUR, A RIBBON AND A BIRTH CERTIFICATE

On May 16, 1996 Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda shot himself dead. He was then serving as the Chief of Naval Operations of the US Navy. He joined the US Navy as an enlisted sailor and was the first to rise to this high rank. Admiral Boorda killed himself to spare his service further ignominy when a investigation carried out by the Newsweek magazine found that he was wearing certain decorations on his uniform which he was not entitled to wear. The investigation by a journalist, David Hackworth, revealed that Admiral Boorda was wearing two Combat Distinguishing Devices on the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal service ribbons on his uniform and that he was not entitled to wear them. The Admiral killed himself fearing more adverse publicity for his Navy. He could have waited for official inquiries to exonerate him but he did not do so. He knew what he had done. Accused of an illegal act, he took what seemed to him as a honourable way out.

On February 26, 2014, Admiral DK Joshi, Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy resigned after a spate of accidents hit the navy causing damage to a large number of surface and submarine vessels. There has been plenty of adverse publicity in the media following these accidents and the fear that more lives had been lost in the immediate accident turned out to be the last straw for him. Admiral Joshi could well have taken the other route for this controversy. He could have sacked some fairly senior Naval officers for their failure to exercise adequate control over their fleet. But Admiral Joshi chose to take blame like a Captain of a ship. Like Admiral Boorda, he too felt that his honour was at stake. And while there are debates raging on the culpability of the bureaucrats and politicians, he has left his service proud as indeed left his reputation unsullied.

One cannot but help compared the acts of these two honourable men with what re-course a former Indian Army Chief of Army Staff took when faced by an alleged act of illegality committed against him. Gen VK Singh had been aggrieved fairly early in his career by what he found to be an incorrect appreciation of his date of birth. He correctly represented against the anomaly as he understood it to be and asked for redressal. He did not get any. Ultimately, having achieved a fairly senior rank and finding himself to be well on his way to the highest rank and appointment, he acquiesced. Till be because the Chief of Army Staff.

And then he represented again to the government. A highly debatable act at that high level of seniority, yet he did so. And once again his representation was turned down. Now here was his chance to take the honourable way. If he believed himself to be correct, he should have immediately resigned and shown his commitment for what he believed to be right. But no, he went on to challenge the government in the Supreme Court which led many to conclude that he was running after ten extra months in service.

I cannot interpret this in any different manner but that Gen VK Singh missed the chance to be known as a trailblazer for posterity in the Indian Army. Just as General Thimayya, for all his brilliant qualities, is still remembered more for having withdrawn his resignation under pressure from Nehru, Gen VK Singh, for all his sterling qualities, will also be remembered for having taken his government to court as the Chief of Army Staff.

Men in uniform are synonymous with men of honour. Till they prove it otherwise. Admiral Joshi has proven that he is a man of honour. He has foregone 17 more months in service. He may have been criticized for his handling of the spate of accidents but his final act as the Navy Chief deserves our salute.

Fare Winds and a Following Sea,  Admiral.

GEN VK SINGH CROSSES SWORDS WITH THE HINDU NOW

After his attack on The Indian Express for the news report on the TSD inquiry, Gen VK Singh (retd), former Chief of Army Staff, has now trained his guns on The Hindu and, In particularl, its Chandigarh-based Assistant Editor, Chandersuta Dogra.

Give below is a detailed rebuttal of Chandersuta to Gen VK Singh's allegations against her which were put in public domain by him. The allegations raised by the former General are also reproduced in detail in all fairness.

However I must add that having known Chandersuta for several years, I do not give any credence to the theory that she would have waylaid anyone for an interview let alone the former COAS. 

CHANDERSUTA DOGRA'S REBUTTAL

Gen (retd) VK Singh has put out a rejoinder about what he describes as “false and motivated allegations” made against him by the Indian Express, The Hindu and specifically against me as the correspondent of The Hindu who interviewed him recently. Oddly, he chose to put it on the internet and social media, held a chat on twitter based on this rejoinder but did not send it to me or my newspaper directly with who he claims to have a grievance.

 Neverthless, this is an attempt to set the record straight.   Not only does Gen (retd) Singh deny that he gave an interview to me but goes on to say that I waylaid him at a friend’s place and threw some questions at him. Wrong. The interview was set up by his lawyer Vishwajeet Singh and his daughter Mrinalini,  and my newspaper approved my travel from Chandigarh to Delhi to enable me to meet the General and do the interview. One does not drive 250 kms just to way lay someone in the hope of being able to pose a few questions!

 I also took the precaution of recording all that he said so that he could not back out later. So his claim that he did not say some of the things given in the interview can be exposed by a mere playback of the recording. He disclosed many more sensitive things but my newspaper took an editorial decision not to go public with that information in the larger interest of maintaining  peace in Jammu and Kashmir.

Since the General had made serious allegations against two persons in this interview, it was incumbent upon me to contact them for their responses to the allegations. Their counter to his allegations  were duly inserted into his interview, which is probably what he describes as “falsehoods, distortions and halftruths”. We see it as good journalism.

   Nowhere in my story have I said that the TSD gave the off air interceptors to the 15 Corps. All I have said The 15 Corps did receive this equipment (Not from TSD) but sent it back because it was found unfit for use in counter insurgency Ops as they were not only receivers but also emitters. It was important to include this bit, which I learnt from my sources, because the army’s enquiry against the TSD (as reported in newspapers) details that two such interceptors were used by the TSD to illegally eavesdrop on government functionaries in Delhi and Jammu. The TSD was not authorised to possess this equipment.  When the eavesdropping became public the interceptors were destroyed and dumped into the Chenab, according to the enquiry.

 General VK Singh alleged in his conversation with me, that two interceptors had been shown as destroyed by Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh,  the then Director General Defence Intelligence (DGDI) and later sold to a private Singapore based company. Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh countered this by asking the General to substantiate this by providing proof of this to the investigating agencies. That I gave space to Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh’s (who had last year filed a defamation suit against the former Army Chief for other allegations)  responses is possibly what has irked the General and prompted this tirade.

            His ire is also over the fact that I, as the wife of an army officer who is much junior to him, had the temerity to do an independent, unbiased  report based on facts instead of the coloured version that he wanted me to put out. In the hierarchy bound Army, wives of army officers are expected to be just as subordinate to seniors as their husband’s are. I was forced to remind the General’s media managers, who have accused me of “backstabbing” through text messages and have threatened me with dire consequences since then, that I do not work for the General and am merely doing my job as a responsible journalist. Throwing rank at me serves no purpose.

But as I have learnt the hard way in the last two days, the General and his spin doctors have no use for fair and impartial journalists. They see conspiracies where there aren’t  any and think that everyone in the media is either for sale (read those who are critical of the general)  or can be intimidated into swallowing everything that they claim is the ‘real truth’.

I have known Gen (retd) VK Singh since April 2012 when I first met him to do an interview for Outlook magazine where I then worked. It was carefully scrutinised by his media managers who approved every word of what went into print. I have had a first  hand experience of his intimidating tactics even then, because he suddenly threatened to withdraw  the interview if it was not put on the cover of the magazine.

                In his quest for a political career, this army officer who has a reputation for being upright and straightforward  has entered the game of peddling lies, double speak and insinuations, in the same manner as the politicians he has been critical of in the past. Shoot, scoot, deny. The metamorphoses from peaked cap to khadi topi is complete.  

-Ends- 

General VK Singh'S Statement – 26 September 2013

On 20^th September ‘The Indian Express’ published a front page banner headlines story titled, “Unit set up by VK Singh used secret funds to try and topple J&K government, block Bikram Singh: Army probe” claiming to be a leak of a ‘Top Secret’ Army ‘Board of Officers inquiry’ report on the working of Technical Services Division (TSD), a secret intelligence unit set up during my tenure as Chief of the Army Staff.

At the outset I would like to state that all the allegations are false and motivated.

First and foremost, TSD was not set up by me as my secret army, but was set up by the Army at the behest of the National Security Advisor after the dastardly attack on Mumbai by Pakistani terrorists who were subsequently labeled by the media as ‘non-state actors’. TSD was created as a capability mentioned in the operational directive of the Raksha Mantri and set up following the due process of procedures existing in the Army as part of intelligence units under the DGMI. Hence, though its existence by the very nature of its work was secret, its existence as a secret unit is not true. That this unit was disbanded shortly after I retired was a decision taken by the powers that be for reasons best known to them.

As far as the general public is concerned, by its very nature, TSD operations were ‘top secret’.  In that event, even the existence of TSD should never have been publicised. Further, if there is exposure of the actual working of the top secret unit, leaking information about it was seditious, regardless of whether information is true or false. Even knowledge of the existence of TSD can help the nation's enemies. Being treasonous, the consequences for the ‘leakers’ and their collaborators could be very serious. Regardless of the above, false stories about the TSD have been appearing in the media for almost a year and half. The Government of India, most amazingly, has chosen to remain completely silent in this regard and have done nothing whatsoever to either trace the source of the leaks or make any categorical statement putting an end to this malicious and dangerous campaign.

Following the dictum that a lie oft repeated soon becomes the truth, TSD has been the target of malicious propaganda that has now assumed extremely serious proportions, as can be seen from the following narration. Despite repeated requests to the PMO to institute an inquiry to trace the source of the leaks, this has been ignored and left to simmer endlessly. Since the beginning of 2012, through ‘leaked stories’ I have been subjected to all kinds of canards and innuendos questioning my nationalism, patriotism and integrity. Starting with allegations of bugging the Raksha Mantri’s office (TSD was a Human Int organization and at no stage had any Off-Air Interceptors on their inventory), charges have been levelled of moving troops secretly to stage a coup, leaking my own letter to the PM that drew attention to the tremendous shortage of ammunition and other war stores (that would severely affect our fighting capability) and now finally that I had used TSD to topple the Government of Kashmir.

That this entire campaign is not only motivated and highly dangerous, the following events tell their own story:

Picking up from the Indian Express leak, on 24 September 2013 ‘The Hindu’ published a news story titled “V.K. Singh counters charges, admits ‘pro-India NGOs’ were funded” written by their Chandigarh correspondent. The opening sentence, that it was my “first proper interview to a newspaper since details of an internal inquiry into his conduct as Army chief were published in The Indian Express last week” itself is false. The fact is that I was waylaid by her at a friend’s place and at her insistence answered a few questions.

As a corollary several falsehoods, half-truths and distortions were deliberately inserted in the news story published by the Newspaper. The most prominent one is that I had claimed that “the panchayat elections of 2011 and the sudden end to the stone-throwing agitation in Kashmir in 2010” were the two major achievements of the TSD. The writer of the news story has actually done some clever ‘cut and paste’ based on information that seems to have been fed to her along with my comments on television. The correspondent has also claimed that senior army officers in 15 Corps have told her (the correspondent is the wife of a serving re-employed officer) that the TSD provided the Corps with off-the air interceptors which later proved to be faulty. Both these are blatant lies that have been cleverly inserted.

Almost immediately, elements and vested interests-political and official-are deliberately twisting and distorting this report and are whipping up frenzy with the purpose of alienating J&K and spreading disharmony among the armed forces. ‘The Hindu’ itself has gone into a frenzy by publishing a concocted story on its front page on 25 September under the title ‘Our lives in danger, say sarpanches in J&K”. This news report says that because of my reckless statements, I have caused “an extremely serious apprehension of militant attacks on more than 33,000 panches and sarpanches as I have completely discredited and maligned the panchayat elections of 2011.” Nothing can be farther from the fact. This statement was inserted by the newspaper into the false interview and cleverly manipulated to sound as if I had made this claim. This is nothing but a fabricated lie.

What is worse, the Newspaper Editor himself has added fuel to fire by publishing the top front page news item in ‘The Hindu’ (26 September) titled “V.K. Singh’s claims damaged India’s interests, officials say”.  Quoting ‘senior officials’ of the government this story accuses me of causing “enormous damage” to the country through some of my recent statements on Jammu and Kashmir, and that the government was investigating my claim that military officers had made illegal payments to politicians, and would decide on what action to take once the facts were established.

This news report has been written by Sidharth Varadarajan, Editor and the Newspaper from ‘On Board the PM’s Flight’ in which he was travelling to Washington DC as part of Prime Minister’s entourage to meet US President and address the UN.

Members of this entourage are former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and presently his advisor; former Foreign Secretary and presently National Security Advisor; former Defence Secretary and presently Comptroller & Auditor General of India; Media Advisor to PM; Editors of ‘Indian Express’ and ‘The Hindu’.

The former Defence Secretary (now CAG) initiated the ‘Board of Officers report ’ through the Army and received the report in March 2013; National Security Advisor has been dealing with and examining the report, a former Joint Secretary in the Defence Ministry, who worked very closely with this Defence Secretary  leaked the report, Editor ‘Indian Express’ published it and Editor ‘The Hindu’ has taken it to a frenzy suggesting in its front page that lives of 33,000 panches and sarpanches in the valley are in peril because of me.

This is probably the same team  that leaked my top secret letter to PM on Defence unpreparedness, promoted the obnoxious ‘line of succession’ in the Army burying merit in the process, accused me of plotting a coup against the Government of India, patronized the TATRA truck purchase and indulged in many other defence purchase scams and worst of all wanted to sell out the Siachen Glacier to China-Pakistan through a dubious Track II initiative headed by the now discredited Air Chief Marshall Tyagi in which ‘The Hindu’ Editor was a key member.

These are the facts that cannot be endlessly disguised by this powerful group of people who seem to care little for our National Interest, as scam after scam has left the ruling party morally bankrupt. 

However, to them all, let me just remind them of the National motto: ‘Satyameva Jayate’ – “Truth alone shall Triumph”.

-ENDS-

GO HOME, THEN GO TO COURT

Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major (retd), had a word of advise for General VK Singh, Chief of Army Staff, the other day. Speaking to a newspaper over phone from Bangalore, the former air chief said he was of the view that the General would be better off if he took off his uniform before taking on the government in court over his age issue.

While no one can deny that as an individual, Gen VK Singh has the right to every legal recourse available to him, the fact remains that for a man in uniform who is at the apex office of his organisation, rights can often get limited. Not because of law, but because of tradition and a sense of honour or 'izzat', which the General himself has evoked in his confrontation with the establishment over the age issue.

It is already looking pretty bad with the Army Chief having filed a statutory complaint over the controversy. And it will look worse if he goes to court in uniform. And while the General may say this is all about 'izzat' and 'integrity', the fact remains he will have much more of both if he does this while out of uniform.

Enough has been written ad nauseum over how the disparity over the age came up so we can skip getting into that because everything is well documented. No one can deny that the disparity should have been corrected many, many years back. But now the issue is of the COAS taking on the government over this alleged anomaly.

For many years we, who have been associated with the defence services in one way or the other, have laughed at the feeble attempts of those in the IAS or the IPS to 'correct' their age while at the fag end of their careers or when they have reached the top. To see the COAS do the same is painful to say the least. irrespective of the merits of the case, it still looks suspiciously as if he is trying to get extra mileage. He has said categorically, he is not doing so, but public perception is fickle, sadly.

The government too should try to look at the situation from the General's point of view. Being pig-headed will not do anybody any good. This should not degenerate into a slugfest. The Army is the last bastion of integrity in this country, and if it falls, all will fall.

And all those politicians who are jumping in to help Gen VK Singh do not understand that they are doing more harm then good. Capt Amarinder Singh's letter should also be seen in this context, though he may have written it with all the feelings of an ex-Army Officer. And the fact that he had to issue a clarification that he wrote it in his personal capacity, shows that his intentions were taken amiss by the 'party high command'. And I am attaching a copy of his letter, which is doing the rounds in the media, to show that it was written on the letterhead of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. So much for "personal capacity".

Air Chief Marshal Fali Major may indeed have a point. If convictions are strong enough then perhaps the right thing to do may be to quit and then fight the good fight.

THE WAR OF GENERALS GETS UGLIER

I've never been a very big fan of Gen JJ Singh. Even when he was the Western Army Commander and I was working with Hindustan Times in Chandigarh, I had a few run- ins with his MGGS who used to be very unhappy with my news coverage. And then there was the famous crying incident which took place when he held a press conference after his elevation as COAS was announced and every effort was made by his staff to persuade me not to write about it. I went ahead while my counterpart in a national daily wrote such a glowing piece that it seemed that it was not the General who had shed tears but the Pakistan COAS!

Be that as it may, I am disgusted to read open allegations being made about how Gen JJ Singh, now the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, was guided by religious sentiments in ensuring that Gen VK Singh retires on a certain date so that another Sikh, Lt Gen Bikram Singh could become the COAS. What were earlier insinuations have now become open allegations. Assisted no doubt by the fact that the government has had a very dim view of the protestations of Gen VK Singh about the change of his date of birth.

I would not go so far as to say that the directions for unleashing this mudslinging campaign against Gen JJ Singh have come from the very top. But what I would certainly like to believe is that the spin doctors who are managing the media campaign in favour of Gen VK Singh's assertions have now decided to take off their gloves and brace themselves for a knuckle fight.

It is a matter of time before the mudslinging acquires another dimension and also involves mediapersons of different media houses. For all we know the spin doctors may start targetting those journalists who are not taking a stand in their favour in the age-issue.

Be that as it may but the fact remains that the reputation of a former COAS is being trashed as it it were of now value. Gen JJ Singh is perhaps keeping mum because of the Gubernatorial appointment he holds but the fact remains that it has now been decided in principal to malign him and to attribute pro-Sikh sentiments to him. The fact that he was the first Sikh COAS is now being used to denigrate him.

If there is proof of him having deliberately run down Gen VK Singh then go to court and get it decided. It will give the Governor a chance too to rebut the arguments and defend himself. But what some of these uniformed spin doctors are not realising is that such malicious campaigns are harming the organisation more then any individual. Not only are you running down a former COAS but you are also casting an aspersion on the reputation and character of a current Army Commander just because he is a Sikh.

These are dark days for the senior leadership of the Army. It may just slip into an avoidable free fall if the war of words escalates and the mud-slinging attains a momentum which becomes difficult to control. The government needs to look at these developments seriously and needs to check them. An institution which has several hundred years of proud history must not be held to ransom by a few individuals who have their own personal priorities fixed firmly in their sights.

Service before Self must not change to Self before Service.

Crises of Leadership

A lot has been written about the controversy surrounding Gen VK Singh's date of birth so there is really no need to get into all that once again. Except perhaps to recount the latest revelation that an MP has written to the Defence Minister citing the General's year of birth to be 1949 and not 1951 as he is claiming or 1950 as is mentioned in some records. And the MP has obtained a birth certififcate from the Kirkee Cantonment as a proof of his assertions.

It is unfortunate for the Army's senior most officer to be embroiled in such a controversy at a stage of his career. It is also unfortunate for the Army as a service to see it's chief being involved in a unsavoury controversy.

The Ministry of Defence is trying to solve this 'age-old' mystery but given its incompetence in resolving it before the Chief came to hold this office, not much speed should be expected from it this time around.

However, General VK Singh has to accept the blame partly for precipitating this crises. It was widely believed that the entire thing had been solved to his satisfaction. And then came the RTI application and the Army's super cleverness in referring it to the Law Ministry. Reminds me of the couplet by Majaz:

"Meri himmat dekhna, meri tabiyat dekhna

jo sulajh jaati hai guthi, phir se uljhata hun main"

If Gen VK Singh had acceeded to the solution found when his predecessor was holding the office then he should step up and say that I am satisfied with the solution found and that I accept it.

If he was unhappy with the solution propounded at the time, he should have made sure it was solved to his satisfaction before he assumed office of the COAS. Now, at this stage, when he is half way through his tenure, to let this crises take over the centre stage when there are more pressing issues at hand, is simply not done.

All he had to do was to have stepped forward and issued a statement saying that he is happy with what the organisation decided for him. But his very silence means that he is not happy and that he feels that he has been wronged. That may well be true, but he should have thought of all this before assuming the highest office of his service. Personal organisational grievances at the level of COAS do not augur well for the image of the service for which he is the custodian.

And if worst comes to worst, what if it is proven that his real year of birth was 1949 and that he was never eligible to become the COAS? Imagine the catastrophe it will be for the service? What disgrace? And what punishment can one inflict upon a COAS who may have indulged in such a thing, even if it was way back in his career?

For all the spin being put out by the official spin doctors of the Army, the Additional Directorate General of Public Information (ADGPI), the Army Chief's image has taken a battering, and so has , by default, the image of the Army.

Had this happened with a junior ranked officer, even if his rank was that of Lt Gen, a court of inquiry would have taken place and a result had withing a span of few days. However, nothing of the sort can be done with the COAS because of his rank. And, ultimately, the call has to be taken by the MoD.

It is very important not to sully the image of the COAS but if there is enough evidence at hand that the office of the COAS has been sullied by an individual, then expemplary action must be taken.

Only Gen VK Singh knows the truth. And if there is not a single shred of evidence against him then he should simply state the facts to the Defence Minister and insist, nay demand, on a quick resolution in interest of the service. But if there is even an iota of truth in the allegations against him, he should quit. This is the least he could do to save the image of the service.