Army Chief Gen. V.K. Singh described the leak of his March 12 letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as “high treason”, while defence minister A.K. Antony called the leak “anti-national” and said he had ordered an inquiry by the Intelligence Bureau.
Significantly, however, while ties between the COAS and the government nosedived, Mr Antony insisted the Chief still enjoyed the government’s full confidence. He told reporters Thursday that he “was not in an embarrassing situation”, and he did “not want to add fuel to the fire” on the controversy over the Army Chief. Mr Antony also said he was “hurt”, when asked why his eyes were moist while addressing Parliament earlier this week after allegations that a bribe offer was made to the Chief by a lobbyist in 2010 and that he had not acted in time to probe the matter.
“The COAS communication ... is privileged information. The leak of the letter should be treated as high treason... The source of the leak has to be found and dealt with ruthlessly,” Gen. Singh was quoted by Army sources as saying. He thus sought to make it clear he was not responsible for leakage of the letter on critical shortages of equipment in the Army.
The defence minister said Thursday: “Whoever leaked this letter, the act is anti-national. It will help our enemies. We have requested the IB to inquire. (Then) we will take action. We will go the root. We will not spare these people.”
Following a formal complaint from the defence ministry late Wednesday evening, the IB launched a massive probe into the leak of the Army Chief’s letter to the PM. Sources in the IB said some key Army officers, most of them close to Gen. Singh, were under the scanner. The IB is using technical and human surveillance in its investigation.