Army Chief General VK Singh may be asked to go on leave till he retires: sources
New Delhi: The government may ask Army Chief General VK Singh to go on leave till May 31, the day he retires as it triple to tide over the crisis precipitated by the General levelling bribery allegations against serving as well as retired Army officers and writing a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh mentioning that the Army was ill-equipped to fight a war and defeat the enemy. Sources say both the government and the Opposition are against sacking General VK Singh and he may, therefore, be asked to go on leave till he retires.
The Intelligence Bureau has begun a probe into the leak of the Army Chief's letter to the Prime Minister. IB Director Nehchal Sandhu also met General Singh on Thursday. The letter written by General Singh claims shortcomings in defence preparedness within the armed forces.
Reacting to the leak of his letter to the Prime Minister, General Singh said, "This is an outrage, official communication with the PM or anybody for that matter with the Chief of staff is privileged information. I have nothing to do with the leak. The leaking of the letter should be treated as high treason, this cynical approach to tar my reputation has to be stopped. The source of leak has to be found and dealt with ruthlessly."
General VK Singh has come under attack for the various revelations and claims in the past few days. The political class is divided over the Army Chief. Some leaders have even called for the Army Chief to be sacked.
Congress MP Harshvardhan Singh wrote to Defence Minister AK Antony demanding the sacking of Army Chief General VK Singh. "General Singh is doing all this after Supreme Court snubbed him on age row. It seems he is planning to join politics," Harshvardhan Singh said.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad also alleged that General Singh was preparing for a political role after retiring from the Army. "The Army Chief is frustrated. He wants to contest elections," said Lalu.
Indian Overseas Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi even called General Singh a frustrated man. "He did not get an extension even from the court so it may be a frustrated mind's utterance," said Ravi while referring to the age row case in the Supreme Court where the General was forced to accept his date of birth as May 10, 1950 in the official records instead of May 10, 1951 as he had been claiming.
However, BJP leader and former Jaswant Singh slammed Defence Minister AK Antony over the Army Chief row and said he was opposed to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing Army officers. "I am in principle opposed to the idea of the CBI investigating officers of the armed forces," he said speaking to CNN-IBN.
Slamming the Defence Minister for lack of action, he said, "The Defence Minister didn't rise to the occasion. The Defence Minister who doesn't hold his head in his hands on such issues. He should have taken an appropriate action with or without a written complaint."
Defending the Army Chief, Jaswant Singh said, "It is well within the duty and function of the Army chief to cancel the order. Investigating the offer of the bribe is part of the Army act. He can't go to the police and file an FIR. He has to report this to his superior who happens to be the Defence Minister."
Speaking on the letter written by the Army Chief to the Prime Minister claiming shortcomings in defence preparedness within the armed forces, Jaswant Singh said, "Such communication between an Army Chief on security is routine. Every month during the NDA regime the Army Chief used to write a letter to the Prime Minister and the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee used to do monthly meetings. There is nothing out of order here."
A letter written by the Army Chief to the Prime Minister's Office claiming shortcomings in defence preparedness within the armed forces got leaked on Wednesday.
General VK Singh also sent a letter written by Trinamool MP Ambika Banerjee, which calls for a probe against Lt General Dalbir Singh Suhag, to the CBI. He also claimed to have been offered bribe for clearing sub-standard vehicles for the Army.