INVC,,
Mumbai,,
The former army chief General V K Singh has again created a storm by claiming that the newspaper story about troop movement near Delhi on the night of 16th-17th January this year was an attempt to raise a finger at defence minister A K Antony. Speaking exclusively to news 24’s editor in chief Anurradha Prasad in her weekly show Aamne Samne, General V K Singh said, “I think it was an attempt to point a finger at the defence minister. It is possible that someone tried to settle political scores by doing this. It happened in January but it appeared in a newspaper in April with big headlines which shows it came out on someone’s direction”.
The newspaper report which appeared on 4th April had claimed that ‘the unexpected and unnotified troop movement had made the government anxious and had underlined the trust deficit between the government and the army’. On being asked if the story could be the result of tensions between the Home minister and the defence minister, General Singh refused to comment saying, “it will not be proper for me to comment on this”.
In his first interview after retiring on 31st May 2012, General V K Singh reacted angrily to the troop movement story by saying, “this is ridiculous. There can’t be a bigger allegation against the army than this. Whosoever has done it should be condemned in the strongest possible words. There was 1 infantry battalion and 1 mechanised unit which means 800 jawans and we are saying government got anxious? This is the Indian government we are talking about, what are you saying?”
General Singh also disclosed that the Defence minister had full faith in his army and he had said openly that people who did it were anti national.
When asked about BEML CMD VRS Natarajan’s defamation notice to him relating to his bribery offer allegations, General Singh raised serious questions about Natarajan’s stint at BEML. He said, “Mr Natrajan is the CMD of BEML for 12 years while no other PSU has had a CMD for that long. There must be a special reason for him to stay that long. It has been reported in the newspapers that plots were given to senior people in BEML colony so that they could influence and Mr Natrajan could continue doing what he was doing. I have full faith in CBI which should get to the core of this”.
On being asked why he didn’t have Lt gen Tejender Singh arrested when he allegedly made the bribe offer, general Singh said, “People don’t know that I could only do what I did to a retired army officer who was not under army rule. I couldn’t have called the military police, I needed witnesses”.
Would he have preferred the defence Minister to take action in this matter immediately when he had reported the matter to the Minister, General Singh only said, “Better late than never. I am still grateful to the defence minister for admitting in parliament that I had indeed told him about the bribe offer”.
General V K Singh also expressed full faith in the CBI saying, “CBI is on of those few institutions in the country which when work do a job. I am sure they will find out the truth”.
General Singh also explained how the arms lobby works saying, “In arms procurement, army and government have their roles and the arms companies have a role. Companies appoint people for lobbying to sell their products and some of these people go around offering bribes everywhere”.
Just 2 days after retiring as army chief, General V K Singh admitted that there are a lot of influential lobbies in the army and dealing with them has been tough for him. He told Anurradha Prasad, “there are a lot of lobbies in the army – one against which we took action. Another which converted military land in to civilian land and Adarsh scam came to light. There were a lot of people in it. These people made a lot of money. It was a very influential lobby considering the money they had, just look at the people who had flats there, you will know how strong this lobby was. Third lobby is of agents dealing in purchase of arms”.
When asked if he could manage to control these lobbies or they proved more powerful, General Singh said, “these lobbies are still trying to influence and you will see that they will keep doing something in future as well to suppress everything”.
General Singh also appeared agitated on the issue of leakage of his letter to the government about lack of army preparedness terming it as part of a smear campaign against him. He said, “Every service chief informs the defence minister on a regular basis on how his force is doing and what it needs. It has been happening forever but the new thing this time was that it was leaked. I want to know who leaked it. It is impossible in the army for such a leakage. It was typed in the operations branch of the army and an officer of the rank of Major General brings it to the army chief to be sent to the minister”.
Downplaying the age row, General Singh said, “I didn’t want one extra day as army chief. When I joined the army, I just wanted to become a Lt Colonel as my father retired at that rank and I didn’t want people to say I was useless. Everything after that has come as a bonus. I told the defence minister I will go the day you want me to go. It was only a matter of honour. The question is whether the school leaving certificate is valid in this country or not”.
On the question ‘Is it difficult to fight the system’, General Singh replied, “It is indeed difficult to fight the system, people have tried to malign me due to all this and they will not stop”.
The retired General also dismissed rumours that he tried to block General Bikram Singh’s appointment as the new army chief by saying, “There was no succession plan in the army, it’s not a monarchy. Government has a selection process based on which it selects the army chiefs. General Bikram Singh has been appointed according to his age and experience but some people tried to show it a in a different light. Army didn’t do anything to malign anyone.
On his future plans, General Singh said he will first complete his PHD thesis and then consider the options and offers which are plenty. He clarified that he has not received any invitation from Anna to join his campaign against corruption.
