Civilian supremacy over the military that is not “rooted in justice and fairness” must be “resisted”, former Army Chief Gen. V.K. Singh said Tuesday, five days after he retired.
Saying he was a “firm believer” in civilian sup-remacy over the military in a democracy, Gen. Singh said this supremacy “must always be rooted in the fundamental principle of justice, merit and fairness”. “Violation of this in any form must be resisted if we are to protect institutional integrity of armed forces,” he said. Reminded of the armed forces’ ethos of obeying the orders of superiors, the former Chief said the ethos was to obey “correct” orders. “If the order is wrong, stand up and say that the order is wrong”, he said.
In his first interview since retiring May 31, Gen. Singh acknowledged his last months were controversial and “eventful”. But all controversies were “manufactured”, he said, and there were “all sorts of allegations, from implied coups to communal nonsense”.
He cited two media reports, one hinting at an implied coup because of troop movements towards New Delhi in January and the leaking of his letter to Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh on the lack of defence preparedness. “The coup story was the most bizarre thing” during his 26-month tenure, he said, adding there was no such thing as “unauthorised troop movements” in the Army. The former Chief said it was “now quite obvious” that leaking of the letter was “motivated and aimed at discrediting me”. The inquiry into the leak must not be “covered up”, he added.