GOVERNMENT VINDICATED. CHIEF GIVEN A TESTIMONIAL LOLLIPOP
It comes as a sad disappointment to me that, the battle which General V K Singh had joined with the Government on the matter related to his date of birth, was given up mid stream by non other than him, alone. Having thrown caution to the winds by challenging the Government in the Supreme Court of India. Throwing in the towel, when the matter was still alive and under consideration in Room No 8 of the esteemed court is tantamount to developing cold feet and chickening out from the legal battle. An, unbecoming trait, for a soldier. Was an endorsement of the officer’s Honor and Integrity by Justices Lodha and Gokhale as also the Attorney General; enough to placate his righteous indignation against an inequity which had triggered off the series of events leading up to the Writ Petition. This appears to be an extremely limp and enfeebled response to a situation, demanding much greater courage of conviction to stand up to and face the Court’s Judgment. Irrespective, of whether, it favored the petitioner or otherwise. The entire belly aching by the General about his personal integrity being under a cloud, which the public was witness to ad nauseum, in the media, should have seen a much more dignified closure to it than what finally transpired.
An audit sheet of what has accrued from this ungainly withdrawal of the Petition prematurely? Has nothing much to show on the credit side. Except, some cajoling and window dressing, to balm the bruised ego of the General. Whereas, on the debit side, it shows the officer’s unwillingness to honor a commitment made to his superiors, not taking a legal recourse when he felt aggrieved about the same initially, having taken advantage of a situation by making a promise earlier now reneging the same on grounds of implied coercion and having reached such a stature not showing requisite wisdom. The General’s pathetic pleadings about the internal machinations which brought about this situation, in the absence of any concrete and substantive evidence to aver the same, did not find any favor with the Bench. The Court decides on the strength and basis of the facts produced before it and not on insinuations and innuendos, no matter how ardently these are presented.
The General’s case, largely rested on the manipulation he was subjected to, in accepting 10 th May as his official date of birth. It was this which should have been his line of argument to establish the malafide of his superiors to carve out a motivated and pliable line of succession. And this could have only been done by continuing with his battle and bringing into the witness box the impugned persons for cross examination, to establish his defense unequivocally. This attempt by V K Singh would then have truly brought the existing muck which continues to rot and stink in the corridors of power within the Army. Since nothing of this has happened, the fault lines in the Organization will continue to remain and may at the most be hidden for the time being, till the dust raised by this unseemly imbroglio settles down. I consider this to be a missed opportunity, to carry out a much needed cleansing of our prevalent procedures and systems, which could have substantially mitigated the possibilities of manipulation, cronyism, favoritism and coercion continuing to remain an Organizational deficiency. The reason why this did not happen is either because there was no substance in VK Singh’s assertions, of his being arm twisted to accommodate a pre determined line of succession and as envisaged by the Chief in 2006. Or else the officer thought that this would be a major embarrassment to the Army and its hallowed Institution, should he expose this conspiracy for it to stand legal scrutiny. And, therefore, the officer’s counsel decided to spare the Army this public humiliation, should the matter have been drawn into the court for examination. This, latter statement by the counsel does not seem convincing enough. Because, in the ‘trial by the media’ and in its debates and through its panelists, which had occupied public attention for days together, had already imputed motives to the previous Chief for manipulating the six years hence, line of succession. Therefore, the assumption that V K Singh was forced into an acceptance and had no option but to acquiesce to this perverse demand of his superiors, does not hold any merit. The moral grandstanding was needless and a subsequently thought of line of argument, to sustain his case upon.
Therefore, as I have maintained in this entire matter right from the time it came into the public domain that, the officer had decided upon playing for the gallery alone and nothing beyond. It was difficult for most to discern this covert motive through their impassioned perception of the matter and hence mobilized an opinion within the Army, of a grave wrong being done to its Chief. The bureaucrats became the obvious target of their ire, for this diabolic twist to a simple matter. Unfortunately, the Chief by withdrawing his writ petition has not only vindicated the stand of the Government, but also given untrammeled space and authority to the same breed of civil servants to interface the Army with the polity. And, that too, with an attitude of condescending authority. So, when General V K Singh reflects upon his tenure as the Chief in his twilight years, I am more than certain that this will occupy his mind more than all else and continue to haunt him for causing immense grief to the pride of the Institution which he once represented.
Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal, VSM
Arborea
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