The movement of two Army units towards Delhi and the leaked letter of General V.K. Singh, in which he highlighted “deficiencies” in the force, on Wednesday came under close scrutiny of a parliamentary committee as top officials of the defence ministry and the Army appeared before it.
Members of the parliamentary committee on defence questioned defence secretary Shashi Kant Sharma and vice-chief of Army staff Lt. Gen. S.K. Singh on the media report about unnotified movement of the Army units in January but both dismissed it as a routine and rejected any connotations as baseless.
Mr Sharma and the vice-chief of Army, appearing before the parliamentary committee in connection with the budgetary allocations for defence for 2012-13, said the movement was normal process of testing the preparedness of the armed forces, sources said.
The parliamentary committee had intimated them that they would be required to brief members on recent controversies dogging the Army, including the deal to procure Tatra trucks, but these issues could not be taken up, the sources said.
Several members felt that the media reports like the one about movement of troops towards Delhi in January created fear in the minds of the people as it was related to civil-military relations, the sources said.
A section of the members also felt that such reports could send a wrong message to the world.
During the post-lunch session of the meeting, the Army vice-chief highlighted requirements of the force but members pointed out that these did not reflect the “deficiencies” flagged earlier by its Chief Gen. V.K. Singh in his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Posing questions to the vice-chief of Army, the MPs said his presentation was not in consonance with the issues raised by Gen. Singh.
He was asked to come back and identify the shortcomings before the committee on April 9, the sources said, adding he agreed to this suggestion.