The Enigma of V K Singh

General (retd)Vijay Kumar Singh, ex COAS – A Chimera And a Disgrace to The Army

It was on a rainy afternoon in Dehra Dun, while I was just about lazing and getting up from my afternoon siesta, a veteran’s luxury and a privilege that, the ringer of my Nokia cell phone brought me awake, sooner than I would have. It was from an unknown caller, who after checking with me my credentials introduced himself as Lt Col Arun Jha. After the exchange of the usual pleasantries, Arun spoke about my blogs which he had read on my URL passionforcourage.blogspot.com on various subjects in general and the V K Singh episode and controversy in particular, which occupied copious media space in the past year or so, quite uselessly. The one specific blog he chose to talk about was the one in which, I had written about the late Major Dharam Pal Kukreti incident that, involved him as his officiating Commanding Officer and V K Singh in 2^nd Rajput regiment, while the unit was deployed on the International Border in Poonch, J&K. Major Dharam Pal was cashiered from service, for displaying exemplary courage of his convictions in standing up for eternal military values and in a most bizarre turn of events unfortunately faced the unjust might of the monolith System – the Army, while V K Singh manipulated and maneuvered his way to become the Chief of the  very same Army, with political intervention and by tempting providence.

Arun has come out with a revealing and no holds barred book, titled ‘General Salute’, by Manas Publications, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, Delhi comprising 200 pages; which brings to light the unbecoming and immoral shenanigans of the officer who rose to become the Chief of the 13 million strong Army. The author who was the adjutant of V K Singh when he was the Commanding Officer of 2^nd Rajput, in the rank of a colonel, had the opportunity to see him at very close quarters practicing what he was best at, double standards in his official conduct. Arun had taken premature retirement from the Army in 2009 and has now dedicated himself with a single point agenda of bringing to public notice the hypocrisy, deceit, Machiavellian scheming and lack of morals and ethics which adorned the personality of the retired General.

This book is a must read for all those who were swayed by the moral grandstanding of V K Singh during his date of birth controversy and other issues which followed, only because they will then realize the extent to which this man worked in a Goebellian fashion to swing public opinion in his favor and emerged as a maverick who had the gall and gumption to take on the Government he served and dragged it to court, an unprecedented act in the history of Armies across the globe.  He played to the galleries and came out with all guns blazing, to court public appreciation and applause.’ General Salute’ traces and brings forth the officer’s growth from a young, middle rung and to a general officer and brings out in open gaze all the various acts of venality and indiscipline he indulged in and yet got away with, to reach the pinnacle of the Organization, whose hierarchy is perversely pyramidical in construct and design. An impossible task to achieve, given the various filters an officer’s career growth is subjected to.

It will be well worth one’s money spent to procure this book to read and know in details the reality behind the persona of the man; who made a virtue out of his failings and fooled the people of the country and lead them to believe that, he was indeed a crusader whose single point agenda was to cleanse and purge the Army of corruption, muck and lack of probity in its officer ship. The author has made himself vulnerable to any defamatory proceedings against him in the courts of the land or else charges of libel and criminal proceedings that can be initiated against him. The work is a narration of facts as seen, understood, implied and conjectured by the author and to which he remains committed, irrespective of what V K Singh can do to him, should any of it be disproved and disallowed.  Truth cannot and must not be made a casualty and law must not make any exceptions for military rank. It is only a matter of time, when the dirty linen which was often spoken and talked about in the recent past, will truly spill out into the public domain and ‘The Chief’ who had come into South Block to cleanse the Augean Stables will probably go down in history as a chimera, who not only disgraced the institution which he represented but also brought it to great disrepute.

After my conversation with Arun Jha, the author of ‘General Salute’, I think all those who had similarly put their honor and credibility at stake to side with and stand up for V K Singh; must introspect and shake their conscience to reconsider and realign their position on the matter of defending the indefensible, which is General (retd) Vijay Kumar Singh, ex COAS. He has been a disaster who should have been thrown out, as suggested by the ex National Security Advisor, Brajesh Misra in his interview with one of the TV channels.

All through the past year that, I was writing on various aspects of V K Singh’s doings and their fallouts, it was my gut feeling that a person who had failed on a Ranger Course at Fort Benning, USA and not only managed to do it again, but was awarded the coveted ‘dagger’ for excelling in it, had filled up his IMA dossier in his own hand with the year of birth as 1950; overstayed leave granted to him and used political patronage to escape punishment, was commanding 2^nd  Rajput when his troops went into a hockey stick wielding fracas with another unit, 7 Kumaon in Ferozepur during a sports event, and many more misdemeanors; could become the Chief – then he could not be what he was projecting himself to be – a man of honor and integrity. In my estimate and understanding such people are categorized as frauds, who are able to understand the failings of an organization and then exploit it to the hilt by practicing situational ethics, an anathema by any stretch of imagination, which an officer and a leader should condemn and shun. We do hope that the civil society movement which is spear headed by the Gandhian Anna Hazare, a veteran and a soldier, is seized of the truth in so far as General (retd) V K Singh is concerned, and wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole. Because, otherwise, it will seriously impinge upon the credibility of the movement, which India Against Corruption is committed to.

Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal

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