Technical Support Directorate

‘Honey’ Trapped

When, General (retd) V K Singh, on assuming office created the Technical Support Directorate (TSD) cell in the Chief’s Secretariat in 2010, it was with a purpose. Quite alike, the Goebellian adjunct in the Fuhrer’s Reichstag, in Deutschland. To monitor, evaluate and plant information which the Chief could be exclusively privy to, and use to his advantage by either neutralising the bureaucratic interface and inch closer to his superior or else snoop on those remnants in the offices of the MoD and the Army HQ, who were favourably disposed towards his predecessors. This assumption is predicated upon the circumstances in which he assumed office and the commitment which he had made about his disputed records concerning his date of birth. The now infamous ‘Adarsh’ housing scam had just burst open into the public domain and senior officers were involved. The case was handed over to the CBI and VK Singh, much to his delight had made himself free from exercising any leverage in the matter, to influence investigations in support of the impugned fraternity. He had breezed into South Block, with a declaration of restoring the moral health of the Army, which had taken a beating in the recent past, with ‘Sukhna’ and ‘Adarsh’ topping the laundry list of scams. He had made enemies for himself and as such loyalties could be suspect from within. To forestall any move which could likely jeopardise his well conceived plan; to get acceptance of his date of birth as recorded in his matriculation certificate and thus ease out of the embarrassment of reneging on his commitment as given earlier, V K Singh was extremely careful to trust none with his modus operandi.   It was with this self serving agenda that he created the TSD cell and brought his favoured officer from the Military Intelligence Directorate to head and run it.

When the officer’s statutory complaint, regarding the acceptance of his date of birth in his official records as recorded with the AG’s branch, and as made to the Raksha Mantri was rejected, the officer’s shrewd and daring mind went into an overdrive; with the express intent to carve out a stratagem, with which to first arm twist the government and later to embarrass its minister. This was the time when the story about ‘off the air interceptors’ and’ troop movement as a cover up ‘to pre-empt the government from taking any action against him, when he was to file his petition in the Supreme Court, started to roll out into the public domain. The TSD was the hot bed of all spooky doings, which was working overtime to put VK Singh a step ahead of his own ministry, in the matter of his date of birth controversy. With the Supreme Court not giving into the officer’s prayer , the most obvious and considered choice left to a man of his honour and integrity, was to resign and leave. But, he did not do so, only because there were many footprints of his scheming mind, which had to be obliterated from the canvas of the scheming laboratory in the MSD.

In an unprecedented move, the government made the announcement about the Chief designate, three months in advance and this brought the present Chief Gen Bikram Singh into the picture, much before it was expected. The TSD therefore, which I am certain and sure must have been under the scanner of many, but could not be touched since it enjoyed express patronage and protection of V K Singh then, could not be cleansed of its dubious activities owing to the government’s declaration about the Chief designate. As any decision, now involving any structural change in the HQ would also require the approval of the Chief designate too.  There is far too much which is under the wraps within the TSD and its director ‘Honey’. Therefore, now that the net is closing and may even become the noose to catch the guilty; the pressure on ‘Honey’ must be unbearable and the probability of being discovered becoming likelier. The officer suddenly falling sick and getting admitted into the Psychiatric ward of the Base hospital in Delhi cantonment, is a consequence of the drubbing which he has been and is subject to, and rightly so, because the wheels of justice roll slowly but surely and grind those who are guilty.

Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal

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