Anshu Attri
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Retired Lt Gen, intelligence officers plotted against Gen VK Singh: Army HQ
Retired Lt Gen, intelligence officers plotted against Gen VK Singh: Army HQ - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: The Army on Monday appeared to be in the throes of a vicious factional feud, with Army HQ publicly accusing a group of serving officers of the Military Intelligence (MI) of conspiring to create a rift between Army chief General VK Singh and the government.
Angrily reacting to the anonymous complaint that officers close to Gen Singh tried to listen in the calls of the defence ministry's top brass as well as senior generals, the Army HQ said the "fabricated fiction" was put out by a group of disgruntled serving officers of MI working in connivance with a retired Lt General, who was a head of Defence Intelligence Agency.
The Army HQ said, "The story is a fabricated fiction and people responsible are some disgruntled officers, retired and serving whose sole aim is to create a mistrust between the army and the ministry of defence." It added, "The officer along with some disgruntled serving officers of the military intelligence, against whom disciplinary and administrative actions is in the pipeline, has worked out this fictitious story."
The allegation about serving officers conspiring against their Army chief along with the insinuation that officers loyal to General Singh spied on MoD officials and others during the tussle over his date of birth, marks a new low for the world's third largest standing army that is admired for its high standards of discipline and seen as an exception in a landscape marked with falling standards and littered with decaying institutions.
The episode brings out the divisions at the highest level in the vaunted force and is a chilling reminder that the feud among the factions may leave it scarred.
Reacting to the story in TOI and other publications on the anonymous complaint, the Army HQ listed the charges against Lt General (retd) Tejinder Singh, alleging that he was an allottee in Mumbai's Adarsh Housing Society. The HQ said that the retired General offered bribes on behalf of a leading foreign automobile maker that supplies vehicles to the Army.
The aggressive rebuttal underlined that Tejinder Singh had faced an inquiry for the unauthorized purchase of the very same listening device -- "off-the-air interceptors" -- that was allegedly used by the supporters of Gen Singh.
The allegation about the retired General being a beneficiary of Adarsh Housing scam, as well as that he and the serving officers who were in league with him were all facing inquiries all hold the key. It ties in with the claim of the supporters of the Army chief as well as independent assessment in many circles that he attracted hostility from many quarters by his actions against corruption.
'Bugging scare a bid to sour ties'
Early on, reports appeared about suspicions of bugs in defence minister AK Antony's office. Although no names were mentioned, the sub-text clearly was that the bugging had been done by supporters of the Army chief to keep tabs on goings on in the defence ministry during tensions over Gen Singh's demand for a revision of his date of birth.
On Monday, the Army HQ suggested that a false bugging scare was created as part of the conspiracy to drive a wedge between the chief and the political leadership. "The Military Intelligence has the mandate to routinely debug the offices of senior functionaries of the MoD and the Army. In a routine check, some abnormality was noticed in Raksha Mantri's office, which revealed that the voltage drop noticed was due to malfunctioning of the instrument."
The HQ added, "The Army does not carry out "off-the-air monitoring" but asks the assistance of IB , if it finds the need. The monitoring equipment is in the possession of the Signal Intelligence and is deployed along the borders and in Counter Insurgency areas. This equipment is under the control of the Director General Defence Intelligence Agency (DG DIA) and not under the military intelligence."
Retired Lt Gen, intelligence officers plotted against Gen VK Singh: Army HQ - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: The Army on Monday appeared to be in the throes of a vicious factional feud, with Army HQ publicly accusing a group of serving officers of the Military Intelligence (MI) of conspiring to create a rift between Army chief General VK Singh and the government.
Angrily reacting to the anonymous complaint that officers close to Gen Singh tried to listen in the calls of the defence ministry's top brass as well as senior generals, the Army HQ said the "fabricated fiction" was put out by a group of disgruntled serving officers of MI working in connivance with a retired Lt General, who was a head of Defence Intelligence Agency.
The Army HQ said, "The story is a fabricated fiction and people responsible are some disgruntled officers, retired and serving whose sole aim is to create a mistrust between the army and the ministry of defence." It added, "The officer along with some disgruntled serving officers of the military intelligence, against whom disciplinary and administrative actions is in the pipeline, has worked out this fictitious story."
The allegation about serving officers conspiring against their Army chief along with the insinuation that officers loyal to General Singh spied on MoD officials and others during the tussle over his date of birth, marks a new low for the world's third largest standing army that is admired for its high standards of discipline and seen as an exception in a landscape marked with falling standards and littered with decaying institutions.
The episode brings out the divisions at the highest level in the vaunted force and is a chilling reminder that the feud among the factions may leave it scarred.
Reacting to the story in TOI and other publications on the anonymous complaint, the Army HQ listed the charges against Lt General (retd) Tejinder Singh, alleging that he was an allottee in Mumbai's Adarsh Housing Society. The HQ said that the retired General offered bribes on behalf of a leading foreign automobile maker that supplies vehicles to the Army.
The aggressive rebuttal underlined that Tejinder Singh had faced an inquiry for the unauthorized purchase of the very same listening device -- "off-the-air interceptors" -- that was allegedly used by the supporters of Gen Singh.
The allegation about the retired General being a beneficiary of Adarsh Housing scam, as well as that he and the serving officers who were in league with him were all facing inquiries all hold the key. It ties in with the claim of the supporters of the Army chief as well as independent assessment in many circles that he attracted hostility from many quarters by his actions against corruption.
'Bugging scare a bid to sour ties'
Early on, reports appeared about suspicions of bugs in defence minister AK Antony's office. Although no names were mentioned, the sub-text clearly was that the bugging had been done by supporters of the Army chief to keep tabs on goings on in the defence ministry during tensions over Gen Singh's demand for a revision of his date of birth.
On Monday, the Army HQ suggested that a false bugging scare was created as part of the conspiracy to drive a wedge between the chief and the political leadership. "The Military Intelligence has the mandate to routinely debug the offices of senior functionaries of the MoD and the Army. In a routine check, some abnormality was noticed in Raksha Mantri's office, which revealed that the voltage drop noticed was due to malfunctioning of the instrument."
The HQ added, "The Army does not carry out "off-the-air monitoring" but asks the assistance of IB , if it finds the need. The monitoring equipment is in the possession of the Signal Intelligence and is deployed along the borders and in Counter Insurgency areas. This equipment is under the control of the Director General Defence Intelligence Agency (DG DIA) and not under the military intelligence."
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