The guilty men of 2012

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The unfolding saga of a service chief going to court to protect his honour, as he puts it, has the entire nation riveted. All kinds of opinions are being expressed by everyone. Some strongly feel that a serving army chief should not have gone to court while others feel that as a citizen he has the right to do so when he is being denied justice by the establishment. The issues that stand out in this episode are by now well known.

Army Chief Gen. V.K. Singh’s 1966 NDA application form stated his year of birth as 1950. This has now become a millstone round his neck. Later, the General’s father, himself an army officer, had forwarded the matriculation certificate to the UPSC, and his date of birth was corrected to May 10, 1951. However, the original application form remained in the records of the Military Secretary’s branch at Army headquarters. Vested interests, both at Army HQ and the Ministry of Defence have exploited this issue to their advantage. Both the establishments have been guilty of passing on incorrect information to the political masters, based on which the government declared that Gen. Singh will be Army chief until 31 May, 2012 whereas if the correct date of birth had been sent up, he would be chief until 31 March, 2013, when he completes three years in the job.
Motives are being attributed to the political masters that all this has been done to benefit a certain individual to become the next Army chief.
Gen. Singh in his writ petition has hinted that he was coerced into giving an undertaking at the time of his becoming the chief that he would abide by whatever date the government decides “in the interest of the organisation”. If it is true, then it is an extremely serious issue and must be probed.
Let us analyse who are the guilty men in this entire saga:
Guilty No.1: Mr. Bhatnagar, Gen. Singh’s school teacher who put in his date of birth as 10 May 1950 in his UPSC form for NDA. As to why the General, then 14-and-a-half years old, did not fill the form himself as required is a moot point. This entry remained in the records of the Military Secretary branch, to be exploited by interested parties later.
Guilty No.2: Military Secretary at Army HQ in 2006. In 2006, Gen. Singh wrote to Army HQ to reconcile his two dates of birth, 1950 in MS branch and 1951 as given in his high school certificate held by the Adjutant General’s branch, which is the date on every military record, including his identity card, and the basis of every promotion he was given upto the rank of Lt. Gen. The school certificate is the authority on date of birth, as per a Supreme Court ruling. The Military Secretary did not reconcile the dates. Not even a reply was sent to Gen. Singh. Army HQ does not normally function in this way. The Military Secretary could not have ignored the issue on his own.
Guilty No.3: Military Secretary, Army HQ in 2008. In 2008, Gen. Singh once again wrote to Army HQ requesting that the date of birth be rectified. Once again, it was not done. This time, the issue is more sinister. The MS branch at Army HQ is responsible for forwarding the dossiers of all army commanders and the vice chief to the MoD, who then forward these to the appointments committee of the Cabinet to select a new chief. The MS branch did not send the high school certificate of Gen. Singh in his dossier. Not only that, he was asked to give an undertaking that he would accept any date of birth that the government wanted him to. Why this illegal activity took place and why the General accepted this blackmail must be probed.
Guilty No.4: Defence Secretary in 2008. Once the dossiers reached the MoD, it was the duty of the Defence Secretary to ensure that all documents in it were in order. Either inadvertently or deliberately, he did not put in the high school certificate of Gen. Singh in the dossier to be sent up to the appointments committee of the Cabinet which, based on an incorrect input, declared Gen. Singh as Army chief until 31 May 2012, based on the MS branch’s date of birth, 10 May 1950. The government now has egg on its face due to this error.
Guilty No.5: The Army chief in 2008. Gen. Singh claims that when he remonstrated with the Army chief in 2008 about his wrong date of birth being sent up, he was coerced to accept it in writing. This calls into serious question the role of the then Army chief.
Guilty No.6: Gen. V.K. Singh, in 2008 and subsequently is now claiming the moral high ground that he is only fighting for his honour and recognition of his correct DoB by the Supreme Court. However, the fact that he gave it in writing in 2008 that he would accept 1950 as his year of birth goes to show that the urge to become the Army chief was so strong, it overcame his sense of injustice. As an honourable soldier, he should have refused to give any such undertaking and exposed the perpetrators. In all fairness, only then he would have been entitled to the moral high ground he now claims. Even now, he is being cagey about it. Also Gen. Singh says he only wants his honour vindicated. Why then on the last page of his writ petition has he said that in case the Supreme Court upholds his case, he should get all attendant benifits. This means he could continue in service until 31 March 2013, when he attains 62 years of age. This flies in the face of his moral posturing.
So what’s next? The matter is too serious to be swept under the carpet, as is the norm in this country. Two courts of inquiry must be ordered. One at Army HQ to ascertain as to why Gen. Singh’s two requests in 2006 and 2008 to reconcile his two dates of birth were not carried out? At whose behest? This court of inquiry also needs to ascertain as to why the wrong date formed a part of the dossier which was sent up to MoD. This inquiry also needs to find out why an incorrect and, in fact, illegal undertaking was obtained from Gen. Singh on his DoB?
The second court of inquiry must be instituted at the MoD to ascertain why the then Defence Secretary allowed an incorrect document to go to the appointments committee of the Cabinet and thus set in motion this sad controversy.
Having been put on the backfoot, the government is now dangling carrots in front of Gen. Singh in lieu of his withdrawal of his writ petition in the Supreme Court — a governorship, appointment as Chief of Defence Staff, etc., have all been offered. Nothing could show up more the bankruptcy of thought in government circles. An issue of such importance is being trivialised in this manner.
This episode also calls into question the abysmal state of civil-military relations in India. There is a complete trust deficit between the armed forces and the babu-neta nexus. This nexus has the sole agenda of emasculation of the armed forces and to keep them out of the decision-making loop. The present unhealthy controversy would not have arisen had the armed forces been a part of the government. It would need an enlightened political leadership to integrate the MoD with the Service headquarters. That, however, does not seem likely.

(Sheru Thapliyal retired as a Major-General of the Indian Army)