In an indication of the tension between the Army leadership and the ministry of defence (MoD) during the last few months of Gen. V.K. Singh’s tenure as the Army Chief, defence minister A.K. Antony told his top ministry officials on Thursday that the 'bitterness' of the past few months should be forgotten and must not be carried forward into the tenure of the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen. Bikram Singh who assumed office on Thursday.
Mr Antony told his officials that the past six to eight months had been a 'turbulent' phase and that this period was an 'aberration', sources said on Thursday. Sources said Mr Antony had made it clear to his officials that the ministry 'must not carry the baggage of the past six to eight months' thereby indicating that the MoD would do all it could to extend co-operation to the new COAS Gen. Bikram Singh.
In another development, Mr Antony is also understood to have asked new Army Chief Gen. Bikram Singh to carry forward the process of modernisation and assured him that the MoD would extend all cooperation to him in this endeavour.
The last eight months of Gen. V.K. Singh’s tenure had been marked by a string of controversies that included his date of birth issue in which he dragged the government to the Supreme Court. Other controversies included leakage of a letter written by him to the Prime Minister on certain critical shortages in the Army. Gen. V.K. Singh had also alleged that he was offered a bribe by a former lieutenant general to clear induction of certain trucks into the Army.
The Army Chief had also accused the same former officer of initiating a baseless campaign of allegations against the Army on the issue of unauthorised snooping.
Meanwhile, Gen. V.K. Singh, who retired on Thursday, said he had 'achieved' a 'change of mindset' in the Army during his tenure in which transformation of the Army into a more agile and effective force was worked upon. He said 'hollowness' affecting the Army (on certain crucial equipment shortages) was 'addressed in a cogent manner' during his tenure.