Chief You Are No Sam Bahadur. What Is The Grandstanding For?
I have written a lot about General Vijay Kumar Singh, Chief of Army Staff, ever since his date of birth controversy came out into the public domain and thus made itself open to views and opinions, whether in support or otherwise. My views were not supportive of the General’s stand in the entire matter and I was forthrightly savage about the manner in which he went about to resurrect his integrity and honor, which was never in doubt, by making the government to accept and publicly recognize his date of birth as mentioned in his Birth and High School certificates. The Supreme Court adjudicated in the matter and brought the matter to a closure, whether final or temporary? Is best left to the petitioner’s discretion and satisfaction. While the ink had not as yet dried upon the Court’s order in this matter; the General probably smarting under the pain of losing a just battle which should have gone in his favor, transgressed service rules by going to the media and springing a surprise, by suggesting that a veiled offer of a bribe of Rs 14 crores was made to him by a lobbyist, to clear a file for the supply of TATRA trucks to the Army. What was more intriguing was this offer coming from a recently retired officer, who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency till June 2010. In accordance with his own admission during the course of the television interview, the Chief said that he was too shocked to understand the implied meaning behind this couched suggestion and asked the officer to immediately leave his office. Thereafter, he went to the Raksha Mantri and informed him about what had transpired earlier in his office on 22 September 2010.
When this story found itself in the pages of a newspaper, there was a commotion which ensued on the floor of the Lok Sabha in the Parliament, with the opposition demanding a statement from the Government to explain the offer of a bribe to the Chief, in defense procurement. An embarrassed Raksha Mantri, visibly shaken and distressed at this development was obliged to give an explanation, by providing a context and was effusive about his personal integrity and honesty in a long political career of about fifty years and having zero tolerance for corruption in defense procurement. Notwithstanding the initial shock which had overwhelmed him, on hearing what the Chief had to tell him and naming Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh as the alleged lobbyist who made the offer of the bribe, the Raksha Mantri asked for a formal complaint to be made and the matter pursued. The Chief was disinclined to probe and get the matter investigated, and suggested that it be dropped. However, the matter has now been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for inquiry.
What emerges from this entire episode is that, the burden of acting upon the entire incident of a bribe having been offered by Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh on 22 nd September 2010, rests with both the Chief and the Raksha Mantri and in equal measure, respectively. The provisions of paragraph 39 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) mandate the responsibility of reporting the offer of a bribe made to a government servant, to the law enforcing agency by the individual, without any extenuating circumstances to justify its non compliance, whatsoever. However, there are certain observations which make the matter appear to be much more than what it is, and manipulation of the truth to suit individual motives cannot be discounted. A sequential narration of facts, which have stumbled into the public domain, will probably enable a more lucid picture of the situation, and to arrive at an informed opinion. Subsequent to the filing of the report in the matter to the CBI by the Chief, an audio tape of the conversation that took place in his office on 22 nd September 2010, when the alleged bribe offer was made to him by the lobbyist has also been handed over to the investigating agency. The questions which now beg to be answered are, why did the Chief sit upon this incriminating piece of evidence that he held with him for more than 18 months and never told the Raksha Mantri or anybody else about it, all through? How was the Chief able to tape record the conversation ( for which one needs to prepare before hand) in which the alleged bribe was offered, when Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh had taken an appointment with him to enquire about the status of his re employment, for which the Chief himself had purportedly recommended him? Why did General V K Singh not inform the Raksha Mantri about the presence of this audio tape held with him in the interregnum? The answers to all these questions can be the basis for arriving at the real motive of the General, to yet again grandstand about his probity, convictions and moral courage to take on the Government as non other has done hitherto fore.
I am more than convinced in my mind that the metaphorical ‘Bribe – Bomb’ is a deliberate and extremely well machinated ploy to put the Government into a predicament and embarrass the Raksha Mantri, who did not accede to the officer’s prayer made in his statutory complaint related to his date of birth row. The judgment is in the people’s court to decide and make an opinion, whether the Chief is a genuine maverick who bucks the system and tilts at the windmills, without a care for or fear of repercussions from the Government he serves. The letter to the Prime Minister, about the ordnance shortages and the question mark about the Army’s preparedness to defend the territorial integrity of the Union of India, is something routine and has earlier precedents. Therefore, it does not contribute to an image makeover of General V K Singh as a gladiator and a character driven personality, who has dared the Government. His actions seem to be steeped in an emotion replete with spite and vindictiveness, but cleverly shrouded by making a virtue out of an ulterior motive.
The issue about commissions being eked out by middlemen in arms deals, is a given, internationally. And it continues to remain as a global practice. The dangerous thing in this is any motivated negotiation in the General Staff Qualitative Requirement of the weapon system / equipment / ammunition / ordnance etc which will compromise the safety and security of the personnel and the country. This can never be argued and justified and makes itself virtually indefensible. Mr A K Antony, though equally culpable of not acting on the report of a bribe having been made to the Chief, cannot be crucified for being corrupt or else projecting himself as a Saint who may have inadvertently made an error of judgment. Opinion within the entire country and the Services fraternity has been vertically divided into camps of those who acclaim General V K Singh as a hero and those who would rather wait for the garb of hypocrisy to be removed sooner than later, and expose him in his true colors of being as mundane and fallible as others. What will emerge from the investigations made into the matter by the law enforcing agencies and the courts? Will only get known in the due course of time, but the military fraternity should have hoped that whatever expose is being attributed to the Chief was done in a manner which is more becoming of a Chief, something in the style and manner of Sam Hormusji Frumji Jamshedji Manekshaw, endearingly known and remembered as SAM BAHADUR. There has non been like him and General V K Singh must first try and walk with his own shadow than paint all and sundry with a tarnished brush of complicity in acts of disgusting and diabolical corruption.
Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal
+919410900051.
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