When Will The Bag Of Tricks Get Empty?
It seems the controversies involving the Indian Army’s Chief will not end and probably get buried only, when he demits office. In an interview given by him to a News Channel, the General literally bowled a vicious bouncer and dropped a bombshell, when he revealed an attempt by a recently retired officer to suborn his integrity by insinuating an offer of Rs 14 crores, to push through a deal for procurement of trucks / vehicles for the Army’s equipment inventory. In these days of sensational journalism and round the clock Breaking News / Stories by electronic media channels, this was News Headlines which caught the attention of the politicians as also the entire Nation. That the matter was raised in the Lok Sabha and the Government put to the sword by the Opposition was no surprise. In a hasty attempt to firefight the embarrassment and save face, the Defense Minister has passed on the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe it and to get to the truth. This will take its own course and time and the Nation will have to wait for the outcome of the inquiry.
Simultaneously, the media got into touch with the officer who is supposedly the one alluded to, by the Chief in his interview, Lt General (retd) Tejinder Singh Sarawat, a Guardsman. Tejinder, when pointedly asked by the news reporter whether he was the one who had made this cloaked offer of a bribe to the Chief, vehemently denied it and attributed it to utter false hood and a trumped up story. While, the aggrieved Tejinder is contemplating a legal recourse to defend his reputation and destruct the calumny once and for all, there is a complete narrative of ulterior emotions and motives lurking somewhere between what has not been stated upfront, by the persons involved in this happening. Tejinder like some other retired and senior officers is also one of the owners of an apartment in the now infamous Adarsh Housing Society. Like, earlier in the date of birth row, the matter about the offer of a bribe is now being debated and discussed in most media channels and we are yet again subjected to hours of rhetoric from the illustrious panelists who are pontificating on the subject one way or the other.
Preceding this Breaking News, was the story about the alleged use of ‘Off the air Interceptors’ to snoop and eavesdrop on the Raksha Mantri and the MoD officials, with its charges and counter charges occupying columns in the print media and then fading away, without an appropriate closure to it. Within about three weeks of that happening, here we are with another story deservedly craving public attention, owing to its seriousness and import. Assumptions are doing the rounds in the public’s perception of the reality and the Army is being hauled over the coals. The one man, who had taken the challenge of restoring the moral health of the Army, when he had assumed office in the wake of the ‘Sukhna’ and ‘Adarsh’ scams, is now the main protagonist of this bizarre drama unfolding in the public domain. The price the Army is paying for acknowledging the honor and integrity of its Chief is far too excessive and unjust. To me this man is an established egocentric, who is solely obsessed by his own mirror image of righteousness and cares a damn about the prestige and reputation of the Organization he leads. General Vijay Kumar Singh has by his questionable conduct made the institution of the Chief available to extreme skepticism and steeped in suspicion. What exactly is the unfinished agenda of this man, who smarts from the insult of the Supreme Court’s speaking order on his DoB controversy and is contriving to pay back the Raksha Mantri in equal measure, for not holding his hand on the disputed issue.
The larger question which begs everyone’s indulgence is the type of culture and system that obtains in the Army, which throws up such officers, who bring the Organization to disrepute and sully its glory. They are maniacal to prove their assertions and opinions and will go to any distance to do so, even if it means to ‘Burn the Picture for the Frame’. Imagine the damage and injury they cause to others who are placed under their military command and positional authority and thus contaminate several generations of the Army’s leadership. It is only by such a skewed hierarchical dispensation that the officers are weaned away from the courage of their convictions to mutate into spineless cronies who only value rank and its privileged accompaniments. The down slide which had besieged the Army’s leadership in its senior ranks has completely corrupted its professional milieu to bring it to such a pass as this. Imagine what a staggering shock it must be for those young and middle rung officers, who at some point of time in their military careers were evaluated by these stalwarts and looked up to them as role models. Hypocrisy pervades the military’s leadership and the confusion gets further compounded, when Chiefs and Lt Generals are discussed and judged with contempt by the people.
Much to the disappointment of many veterans and serving personnel, the moral cleansing which is required to be done in a comprehensive manner is unlikely to happen, because it cuts the very hand that feeds. The superiors consummate their venal demands through their subordinates, in a quid pro quo ensuring the success of the latter and the cycle continues unbroken. Probity and rectitude are virtues which are bandied about and the primordial vice of greed overtakes our better sense. I am more than convinced that, the reputation of the Army which has hit rock bottom in the recent past will now bounce back in an upward trajectory, only because it cannot go down further. We must surely be indebted and grateful to General V K Singh for this turn around about the Army’s reputation in the public’s perception and probably Bikram Singh will take the credit for that, by default.
Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal
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