Blot on the image of the India Army : Kuldip Nayar

[vivINDIAN]

V K Singh is all politics: even his body language says so

I have been getting calls from the Pakistan media to inquire whether the army stalled the government from certain decisions or forced it to take some without its willingness. Their concern is understandable because the army is the boss in Pakistan and even Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who said the elected government would be superior, has to clear the agenda of close India-Pakistan relations with his army chief Gen Parvez Kayani. I have assured the Pakistan media that the situation in India is like the one prevailing in advanced countries in the West where voters are the arbiters.

However, I can recall one example of the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act which can kill anyone on suspicion without being arraigned. The government was inclined to modify the act after a commission’s recommendations. But the army had its way and the act stays without any amendment.

Except for this, I have found the Indian army obedient to the elected government. It may be a cliché but the army is apolitical and takes pride in eschewing politics. There may be discussions in messes or canteens of the armed forces on the present conditions obtaining in the country. But they are healthy and nothing beyond the ventilation of disgust.

This is not even a case of Bonapartism. I know of a few aberrations on the part of certain army chiefs who have gone beyond the ambit of authority. But there is no instance of defiance. When General K S Thimmaiah, a popular army chief, submitted his resignation to the dismay of public, it was against the functioning of the then Defence Minister Krishna Menon. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru intervened and made Thimmaiah to take back his resignation. Menon stayed on at the Defence Ministry and Thimmaiah retired after completing his term.

General K Sundarji went beyond his authority during the military exercises (Operation Brass Tacks). He went into the disputed territory under China and into Pakistan. Islamabad was so disturbed that it sent its Foreign Secretary Abdul Sattar to New Delhi. Sundarji was pulled up. However, he continued to be the army chief until his retirement.

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw was popular among the people, particularly after the victory in the Bangladesh war. Even the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, was suspicious. He made it clear when he met her that he was proud to head such armed force which did not interfere in political affairs. “You do your job and allow me to do mine,” he was supposed to have told Indira Gandhi.

The latest example, somewhat disturbing, is that of General V K Singh who retired recently as the army chief. He shared the dais with the controversial Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. I wish V K Singh had waited a bit longer before jumping into politics. There is no harm in generals joining politics. The greatest democracy of America has examples of top military chiefs like Douglas MacArthur and Dwight D Eishenhower running for presidential election, the latter winning the coveted position. But both of them did not rush to the election platform from the theatre of war. They contested only after decent intervals.

The main allegation against V K Singh is that he set up a unit, the Technical Support Division, to snoop on the government at Srinagar and used secret funds to topple it. In an interview to a television network, he has gone further to say that the army has been financing since independence ministers in the Jammu and Kashmir government to maintain “peace and stability” in the state.

The allegation of snooping against the elected government at Srinagar is a serious one. The ruling National Conference is justified in demanding a probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge. The centre is in the dock as far as V K Singh’s admission that the military has financed all ministers at Srinagar. Let the Omar Abdullah government explain whether the charge is correct. Farooq Abdullah, former chief minister, is so disturbed that he has demanded a CBI probe immediately. The constitution by V K Singh of a special cell for special purposes has also to be looked into. The defence ministry has issued a statement to assure that the matter is being pursued for “further action”. V K Singh was said to have been upset by the leakage of report against him by top army officials.

The report is not yet in the public domain. But the charges are too serious to be left at that. The revelations make a mockery of the army’s function in a democratic polity. Covert operations are conducted all over the world. They should never see the light of the day and the officials engaged in them should keep quiet till their death and not even mention them in their memoires.

The military also needs to revise its rules of retirement so as to stop the former chiefs of the three services – army, air force and navy – are not able to join a political party for a decade after their retirement. Being in command they are bound to have earned enough fame to influence the voters. All this darkens the image of the army.

However, V K Singh is not the entire army. He is a maverick. He has criticised even the Supreme Court for having rejected his claim to continue for one year more in service because of his birth certificate was “incorrect”. When he had made no effort to have the “mistake” rectified during his entire career, he had no right to do so after occupying the position of the chief of army staff.

V K Singh is all politics. Even his body language says so. What he has said speaks volumes of affairs between the government and the army. The self-righteousness of V K Singh is not understandable. Why did he not stand up and stop the financing on Kashmir? Instead, he accelerated the process. He says that Omar Abdullah has “an agenda”. What is it and what did V K Singh do to stop it? To topple an elected government is no solution. His own credibility is in doubt. His association with Anna Hazare at present should be taken with a pinch of salt.

 

[Nisha]

Bullshit article...aka PAID NEWS! Listen my mother has a birth certificate from India and it is in accurate. in fact, at the time, hospital and school records are completely different, even to this day.


The military also needs to revise its rules of retirement so as to stop the former chiefs of the three services – army, air force and navy – are not able to join a political party for a decade after their retirement. Being in command they are bound to have earned enough fame to influence the voters. All this darkens the image of the army.




Why? Military men are more trustworthy than are corrupt driven politicans. Hae any of paid attention to politics in the last 50 yrs? Two parties with families and kin controlling India and everything in it. Wake the fuk up or die doing nothing. Democracy in INdia is a farce, when you have the 6 generations of Gandhi controlling India since Independence. It is really beginning to feel as Nehru and his kin are British crown employees....

 

[PlanetWarrior]

VK Singh should have faced charges for his actions including his contemptuous attitude towards the SC judges and their judgment

 

[acetophenol]

Where's the source?

 

[agni 6]

http://http://www.niticentral.com/2013/09/21/upa-chiefs-get-into-a-siege-mentality-opt-for-desperate-moves-135669.html


Veteran observers of the capital’s corridors of power were expecting a major response from the UPA command centre after the spectacular success of Narendra Modi’s first major public appearance at the rally in Haryana a few days ago. Certainly, the presence of the former Chief of Army Staff, General VK Singh, along with a host of former flag officers (Lieutenant Generals, Major Generals and Brigadiers) would have rattled the Gandhi topiwallahs. However, what must have really shaken them was the response of the crowd that comprised a large percentage of ex-servicemen and their families. Even the motley strategists in 24 Akbar Road and 10 Janpath are aware that this part of the country (Rajasthan, Haryana and western UP) provides a sizable percentage of the enlisted men in the Army.

Two of the Army’s prominent infantry regiments (the Rajputana Rifles and the Jat Regiment) do their recruitment exclusively in this area. The combination of VKS and NaMo on the dais and the rapturous welcome they received from the crowd is something that the UPA think tank knows is their nightmare come to life. It does not require more than the minimum intelligence to visualise the impact this alliance could have in the 2014 polls. However, when the news filtered through this morning about the ruling regime’s riposte, most dispassionate observers started wondering about the levels to which our present rulers can stoop.

Using the same underhand methods that they had used in April 2012 against the General (who was then the Army chief), the UPA agent provocateurs planted a story in the Indian Express (which published it on Friday) that the good General, when he was chief, had used Army funds to try and topple, if you please, the J&K Government of Omar Abdullah. Supposedly, the new Chief, Bikram Singh (who had taken over from VKS) and his team have been looking at this episode and a ‘report’ has allegedly been submitted to the Defence Ministry. Now, why would the Army chief try to topple Omar baba’s piggy bank, and that too with an operating budget of a little more than Rs 1 crore? Clearly, the Keystone cops in Akbar Road and Janpath have an extremely poor opinion of the IQ level of the Indian public.

Let us go back a bit. In April 2012, Shekhar Gupta’s newspaper had published a front-page lead story which sensationally claimed that a large contingent of troops had moved to Delhi on January 16 -17 under the cover of planning for the Republic Day ceremonies, and this was an unauthorised deployment done under the direct or indirect prodding of General VK Singh. Gupta and his henchmen tried to portray it as an ‘attempted coup’. Clearly, an overdose of Frederic Forsyth and John le Carré here. When faced with the prospect of a major legal case by the General and the Army, these hacks beat a hasty retreat.

In any case, a good friend of mine, a former gunner of distinction, told me that it does not take 2500 soldiers to stage a coup in Delhi. Even 50 of our well-trained faujis, led by a Captain or two, are good enough to take over Raisina Hill and its assorted power points. The babus and the netas will run so fast that Usain Bolt would be surprised, according to my old friend.

But how can human nature not assert itself ? Gupta and his cohorts are now back at their old game. Of disinformation, character-assassination, venality and treason. Poor Ramnath Goenka must be dying a thousand deaths to know that his dream journal is now nothing but a shabby instrument in the hands of the dynasty that he loathed so heartily. It does not require an Einstein or a Hercule Poirot to realise that reports of the Army trying to topple the elected Government of a sensitive border state like J&K are nothing but manna from heaven in the hands of the terrorists and separatists on both sides of the LoC, as well as the official wings of the Pakistan Government. This will be ready ammunition for Pakistan to use in every conceivable international forum, not to mention among the hordes of Indian denizens sympathetic to the Pakistani cause.

The UPA war room and its agents in the world of the media and in Delhi’s salon circles are playing a hideous and obscene game to destroy the credibility of the one institution in this country that has survived the onslaught of treachery, graft and fraud, to a very large extent. Yes, there are fault lines in the armed forces – our soldiers come from the same cultural and civilisational background as the rest of the population and have the same DNA. There have been compliant generals like PN Thapar and BM Kaul who were ******** and cowards, if not worse. There were fawning chiefs like Idris Latif, JJ Singh et al who got rewarded with plum gubernatorial or ambassadorial posts after retirement. There were even some like SM Nanda who went into the arms trade. And then there are people like the Major-General who was thrown out of service on serious charges, who was pontificating about the ‘sins’ of General VK Singh on TV on Friday evening.

The man is the younger brother of a press pundit and has no compunction in interacting with people shamelessly, even when the latter are aware of his peccadilloes. However, the overwhelming majority of the other ranks and the officers in our armed forces have been shining examples of courage, dedication, commitment and integrity. This is one institution that the motherland can unhesitatingly rely upon, during any crisis or catastrophe. The women and men in uniform will come to the nation’s succor, with no questions asked and no expectations of any reward. This is what is most galling to our babus and netas. That we have such a glorious role model at hand, when they themselves have their hands in the till and their feet in the slime.

Therefore, the babus and the netas entered into a despicable and unholy alliance since the General Thimmayya episode in 1959 to systematically downgrade and demoralise the armed forces, deny them their legitimate benefits and humiliate them in every possible manner. The babu-neta alliance is now seeing the ex-services population rallying around a Modi-Singh combine and this has sent them scurrying for cover. Naturally, this is the time for the dirty-tricks department to swing into action.

Historically, competing military powers have always tried to destabilise the armed forces of their rivals. Germany did that successfully to France with the Dreyfus affair that crippled the morale of the French Army for nearly two decades and split the French officer corps into two bitter rival camps. In the 1930s, the Germans again sowed dissension in the French armed forces, using class and political fault lines. The old French military families were generally Catholic and right-wing, not very fond of the Republic, while the younger officers often belonged to staunchly anti-clerical groups, committed totally to the republican cause. Canaris and his Abwehr in Berlin used their resources liberally in order to divide the French Army along these lines.

However, the classic success story of decimating an entire rival Army, without firing a shot, pertains to the clash between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. This virtually impossible feat was achieved by the German secret service. They almost destroyed the Soviet officer corps in the late 1930s by using a forged letter that purported to prove that the legendary Marshal Tukhachevski was actually a German spy. Heydrich was the author of this master-stroke; it involved using the innocent Dr Benes, the President of Czechoslovakia, a Soviet ally, into delivering the forged letter to Stalin.

The Georgian megalomaniac, always looking over his shoulder to see if there were any rivals, took this opportunity to launch a brutal purge of the Soviet armed forces. Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky was found guilty after a kangaroo trial and executed on June 11, 1937. Eight other Generals were also executed. However, Stalin’s blood-lust did not abate. The purges in the Soviet Armed forces continued till 1940 ; when they finally ended, the country had lost almost 40 per cent of its officer corps. This is the parallel that Indian citizens must keep in their minds ; our enemies within and outside are trying to do something similar to our armed forces. If this game plan with General VK Singh succeeds, it will split the Army into rival camps, polarise opinions and loyalties, and effectively leave the nation defenceless. Let us not be complacent about the inherent capabilities of the ISI and its personnel. They also read the same history books as we do.

All of us must stand up and ask the authors of this outrageous conspiracy to prove every word of their fantasies. Otherwise, we must put the whole thing down to panic stations in Janpath and Akbar Road, comparable to what happened in the Führerbunker in Berlin in early May 1945, as the victorious Red Army was fighting its way into Berlin. As the great Hugh Trevor-Roper wrote in his epic The Last Days of Hitler, his inner group was “as incalculable in its capacity for intrigue as any oriental sultanate”. Are Mrs Gandhi and her accomplices in the same league already?

 

[MST]

http://http://www.niticentral.com/2013/09/21/upa-chiefs-get-into-a-siege-mentality-opt-for-desperate-moves-135669.html


Veteran observers of the capital’s corridors of power were expecting a major response from the UPA command centre after the spectacular success of Narendra Modi’s first major public appearance at the rally in Haryana a few days ago. Certainly, the presence of the former Chief of Army Staff, General VK Singh, along with a host of former flag officers (Lieutenant Generals, Major Generals and Brigadiers) would have rattled the Gandhi topiwallahs. However, what must have really shaken them was the response of the crowd that comprised a large percentage of ex-servicemen and their families. Even the motley strategists in 24 Akbar Road and 10 Janpath are aware that this part of the country (Rajasthan, Haryana and western UP) provides a sizable percentage of the enlisted men in the Army.

Two of the Army’s prominent infantry regiments (the Rajputana Rifles and the Jat Regiment) do their recruitment exclusively in this area. The combination of VKS and NaMo on the dais and the rapturous welcome they received from the crowd is something that the UPA think tank knows is their nightmare come to life. It does not require more than the minimum intelligence to visualise the impact this alliance could have in the 2014 polls. However, when the news filtered through this morning about the ruling regime’s riposte, most dispassionate observers started wondering about the levels to which our present rulers can stoop.

Using the same underhand methods that they had used in April 2012 against the General (who was then the Army chief), the UPA agent provocateurs planted a story in the Indian Express (which published it on Friday) that the good General, when he was chief, had used Army funds to try and topple, if you please, the J&K Government of Omar Abdullah. Supposedly, the new Chief, Bikram Singh (who had taken over from VKS) and his team have been looking at this episode and a ‘report’ has allegedly been submitted to the Defence Ministry. Now, why would the Army chief try to topple Omar baba’s piggy bank, and that too with an operating budget of a little more than Rs 1 crore? Clearly, the Keystone cops in Akbar Road and Janpath have an extremely poor opinion of the IQ level of the Indian public.

Let us go back a bit. In April 2012, Shekhar Gupta’s newspaper had published a front-page lead story which sensationally claimed that a large contingent of troops had moved to Delhi on January 16 -17 under the cover of planning for the Republic Day ceremonies, and this was an unauthorised deployment done under the direct or indirect prodding of General VK Singh. Gupta and his henchmen tried to portray it as an ‘attempted coup’. Clearly, an overdose of Frederic Forsyth and John le Carré here. When faced with the prospect of a major legal case by the General and the Army, these hacks beat a hasty retreat.

In any case, a good friend of mine, a former gunner of distinction, told me that it does not take 2500 soldiers to stage a coup in Delhi. Even 50 of our well-trained faujis, led by a Captain or two, are good enough to take over Raisina Hill and its assorted power points. The babus and the netas will run so fast that Usain Bolt would be surprised, according to my old friend.

But how can human nature not assert itself ? Gupta and his cohorts are now back at their old game. Of disinformation, character-assassination, venality and treason. Poor Ramnath Goenka must be dying a thousand deaths to know that his dream journal is now nothing but a shabby instrument in the hands of the dynasty that he loathed so heartily. It does not require an Einstein or a Hercule Poirot to realise that reports of the Army trying to topple the elected Government of a sensitive border state like J&K are nothing but manna from heaven in the hands of the terrorists and separatists on both sides of the LoC, as well as the official wings of the Pakistan Government. This will be ready ammunition for Pakistan to use in every conceivable international forum, not to mention among the hordes of Indian denizens sympathetic to the Pakistani cause.

The UPA war room and its agents in the world of the media and in Delhi’s salon circles are playing a hideous and obscene game to destroy the credibility of the one institution in this country that has survived the onslaught of treachery, graft and fraud, to a very large extent. Yes, there are fault lines in the armed forces – our soldiers come from the same cultural and civilisational background as the rest of the population and have the same DNA. There have been compliant generals like PN Thapar and BM Kaul who were ******** and cowards, if not worse. There were fawning chiefs like Idris Latif, JJ Singh et al who got rewarded with plum gubernatorial or ambassadorial posts after retirement. There were even some like SM Nanda who went into the arms trade. And then there are people like the Major-General who was thrown out of service on serious charges, who was pontificating about the ‘sins’ of General VK Singh on TV on Friday evening.

The man is the younger brother of a press pundit and has no compunction in interacting with people shamelessly, even when the latter are aware of his peccadilloes. However, the overwhelming majority of the other ranks and the officers in our armed forces have been shining examples of courage, dedication, commitment and integrity. This is one institution that the motherland can unhesitatingly rely upon, during any crisis or catastrophe. The women and men in uniform will come to the nation’s succor, with no questions asked and no expectations of any reward. This is what is most galling to our babus and netas. That we have such a glorious role model at hand, when they themselves have their hands in the till and their feet in the slime.

Therefore, the babus and the netas entered into a despicable and unholy alliance since the General Thimmayya episode in 1959 to systematically downgrade and demoralise the armed forces, deny them their legitimate benefits and humiliate them in every possible manner. The babu-neta alliance is now seeing the ex-services population rallying around a Modi-Singh combine and this has sent them scurrying for cover. Naturally, this is the time for the dirty-tricks department to swing into action.

Historically, competing military powers have always tried to destabilise the armed forces of their rivals. Germany did that successfully to France with the Dreyfus affair that crippled the morale of the French Army for nearly two decades and split the French officer corps into two bitter rival camps. In the 1930s, the Germans again sowed dissension in the French armed forces, using class and political fault lines. The old French military families were generally Catholic and right-wing, not very fond of the Republic, while the younger officers often belonged to staunchly anti-clerical groups, committed totally to the republican cause. Canaris and his Abwehr in Berlin used their resources liberally in order to divide the French Army along these lines.

However, the classic success story of decimating an entire rival Army, without firing a shot, pertains to the clash between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. This virtually impossible feat was achieved by the German secret service. They almost destroyed the Soviet officer corps in the late 1930s by using a forged letter that purported to prove that the legendary Marshal Tukhachevski was actually a German spy. Heydrich was the author of this master-stroke; it involved using the innocent Dr Benes, the President of Czechoslovakia, a Soviet ally, into delivering the forged letter to Stalin.

The Georgian megalomaniac, always looking over his shoulder to see if there were any rivals, took this opportunity to launch a brutal purge of the Soviet armed forces. Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky was found guilty after a kangaroo trial and executed on June 11, 1937. Eight other Generals were also executed. However, Stalin’s blood-lust did not abate. The purges in the Soviet Armed forces continued till 1940 ; when they finally ended, the country had lost almost 40 per cent of its officer corps. This is the parallel that Indian citizens must keep in their minds ; our enemies within and outside are trying to do something similar to our armed forces. If this game plan with General VK Singh succeeds, it will split the Army into rival camps, polarise opinions and loyalties, and effectively leave the nation defenceless. Let us not be complacent about the inherent capabilities of the ISI and its personnel. They also read the same history books as we do.

All of us must stand up and ask the authors of this outrageous conspiracy to prove every word of their fantasies. Otherwise, we must put the whole thing down to panic stations in Janpath and Akbar Road, comparable to what happened in the Führerbunker in Berlin in early May 1945, as the victorious Red Army was fighting its way into Berlin. As the great Hugh Trevor-Roper wrote in his epic The Last Days of Hitler, his inner group was “as incalculable in its capacity for intrigue as any oriental sultanate”. Are Mrs Gandhi and her accomplices in the same league already?

Excellent piece from Kuldip Nayar. Highlighted some key points.

Shekhar Gupta and Indian express has become a Congi paper.

 

[President]

v k singh is more patriotic then rest of the polticians..the only thing wrong he did was to speack about confidential information , which I believe is confidential and should be upkept even if somebody retires from the post ..I believe the allegations he has made are true so the only thing he can be percecuted is based on the confidential information disclosure which I am not sure how stringent the rules and laws are for it..I think he is a novince in poltics and that is why is fights for his birth date in court as well as these disclosures..he is definetly power hunger and feel a vacumn since he left his post ....

 

[agni 6]

http://http://www.niticentral.com/2013/09/26/action-against-general-vk-singh-exposes-upas-insecurity-137835.html

Why is the former Army chief General VK Singh being targeted and demonised by the vindictive and fascist Sonia Congress and corrupt minority UPA Government and undemocratic National Conference Government in Jammu & Kashmir. The reasons are not far to seek. One of the reasons being Singh did not approve of the UPA Government’s Kashmir policy as well as its weak-kneed military and foreign policies.

The other reason is that he had refused to fall in line and did his best to expose corruption in the Defence Ministry as far as procurement of war equipment and vehicles were concerned. He has always put his foot down and opposed those who wanted to procure sub-standard military equipment and vehicles. In fact, he even drew the attention of the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister a number of times over this, as most of the Defence equipment have become obsolete and there is an urgent need to revamp our war machines so that India could meet the challenge posed by the hostile nations like Pakistan and China.

Everything is in public domain and hence, there is no need to reflect more on this aspect that relates to the unity and territorial integrity of India. The third reason is that he as the Army chief vehemently opposed authorities who were hand-in-glove with terrorists and separatist-friendly NC. They also vouched for the dangerous suggestion of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah that the Army be withdrawn from the State and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) should be repealed. The nation is aware of this, therefore, it is not necessary to write anything more on this issue. Suffice to say that the situation in Kashmir valley continues to be highly volatile and it would be suicidal to withdraw the Army and the AFSPA from terrorists and separatist-infested Kashmir.

Yet another reason that embittered the relations between General VK Singh and the Congress-led UPA Government and the NC-Congress coalition Government in Jammu & Kashmir was the former General’s views on the Kashmir issue – a fact which is little known. It is imperative to reflect on what General VK Singh said about the nature of Kashmir problem and the failure of the Government to adopt a rational and national approach towards Jammu & Kashmir after becoming the Army chief. He was perhaps the first serving Army chief, who took a line completely different from that of the Defence Ministry and Home Ministry by rejecting the traditional and unsettling view that the Kashmir issue was political. He also dismissed the ongoing secessionist movement as communal and said without mincing words that the movement was based on a regressive ideology. He made this statement in the wake of the controversy created by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s October 2010 Srinagar statement.

Chidambaram had said: “Kashmir has a unique history and unique geography, therefore, Kashmir problem is unique too, which needs a unique solution. The solutions which are applicable to other States cannot implied to J&K.” The Defence Ministry took no time in contradicting the assessment of General VK Singh. It used the services of Lt Gen SA Hasnain to counter his senior and reassure the Kashmiri leadership, both separatist and the so-called mainstream, that the Government of India endorsed the view that Jammu & Kashmir was a political problem that needed a political solution. It was on January 29, 2011 that General VK Singh expressed his view on the nature of Kashmir problem and virtually said that the Government had all along mishandled the Kashmir issue and jeopardised the paramount national interests by pandering to communal and separatist forces in Kashmir, including the NC.

It would be only desirable to quote verbatim what he said that day during an interview to a news channel in Delhi. He had, inter-alia, said: “Jammu & Kashmir is a complicated set of things. There has to be a holistic view on what we do there. We have to take a very different view from the long-term perspective. Don’t take decisions for the sake of expediency for a certain purpose. You have to have focus and resolve and the Government should put some people on the job…Troops withdrawal is not an option at this time. The day 42 camps on the other side are wound up and Pakistan stops its proxy war, that would be the time to withdraw troops. Until that time, it is not possible. Jammu & Kashmir is not about mathematics. We have to be pragmatic about troops reduction. The prevalent undercurrents in the border State are ideologically focussed. Ignoring the ideology being preached in the Kashmir valley would be at one’s own peril. We must look very closely at the ideology being preached. What are we doing to counter this ideology”. Are the mainstream political parties (in this case the Congress and the NC) doing anything about it?

What General V K Singh said was not based on heresy. It was based on the ground realities as they existed in Kashmir. The Government of India, the Defence Ministry and the Home Ministry should have appreciated the views of General Singh in the larger national interest, but it was not to be for obvious reasons. On the contrary, the Defence Ministry fielded the Srinagar-based 15 Corps Commander, Lt Gen Hasnain, on February 1, 2011 to counter the Singh’s views. While addressing reporters on the sidelines of a function organised by the Army at 2 Sector Headquarters, Khanabal, Kashmir, Lt Gen Hasnain said: “Kashmir is a political issue and Army has no role to play in the decision with regard to the revocation of the AFSPA. Kashmir is a political issue and needs to be resolved politically”.

It is absurd to say that Lt Gen Hasnain, who is likely to be rewarded for his anti-national stand on Kashmir, spoke the language of Kashmiri separatists on its own. He undoubtedly spoke for and on behalf of the Government and told the votaries of Kashmir’s separation from India that New Delhi shared their view and not that of General VK Singh and that the UPA Government was committed to resolving the Kashmir issue politically. Lt Gen Hasnain, who is currently posted at the Army Headquarters in New Delhi and likely to be appointed as Indian ambassador to Poland, had maintained, and continue to maintain, very good relations both with Omar Abdullah and those who matter in New Delhi for reasons not difficult to fathom, the most important being is that he fully fits in the communal and perverted scheme of things of the UPA and the NC-Congress coalition both at the Centre and in the State.

The Congress-controlled UPA and the NC-led coalition Government in Jammu & Kashmir had perhaps hoped that General VK Singh would become inactive after his superannuation in 2012, but much to their chagrin it has not happened. What has happened is to the contrary. The former Army chief has become more active in the country’s social and political arenas and has been sharing dais with social activist Anna Hazare, yoga guru Baba Ramdev, BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and similar other honest social and political activists. Since the Sonia Congress is mortally afraid of these upright and committed Indians, it has started a vilification campaign against General V K Singh and ilk. It is heartening to note that the bulk of the Indian nation has seen through the sinister game plan of the Congress, the UPA and the NC and decided to decimate them sooner than later.

There is no doubt whatever that General VK Singh would emerge victorious as he is destined to play an important role the country’s socio-political life. He, like Narendra Modi and Baba Ramdev, is an invaluable asset for the nation that is anxiously looking forward for that day when India will become Congress-free and Narendra Modi will lead the country and obtain for the Motherland a status in the comity of self-respecting nations.

 

[President]

http://http://www.niticentral.com/2013/09/26/action-against-general-vk-singh-exposes-upas-insecurity-137835.html

Why is the former Army chief General VK Singh being targeted and demonised by the vindictive and fascist Sonia Congress and corrupt minority UPA Government and undemocratic National Conference Government in Jammu & Kashmir. The reasons are not far to seek. One of the reasons being Singh did not approve of the UPA Government’s Kashmir policy as well as its weak-kneed military and foreign policies.

The other reason is that he had refused to fall in line and did his best to expose corruption in the Defence Ministry as far as procurement of war equipment and vehicles were concerned. He has always put his foot down and opposed those who wanted to procure sub-standard military equipment and vehicles. In fact, he even drew the attention of the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister a number of times over this, as most of the Defence equipment have become obsolete and there is an urgent need to revamp our war machines so that India could meet the challenge posed by the hostile nations like Pakistan and China.

Everything is in public domain and hence, there is no need to reflect more on this aspect that relates to the unity and territorial integrity of India. The third reason is that he as the Army chief vehemently opposed authorities who were hand-in-glove with terrorists and separatist-friendly NC. They also vouched for the dangerous suggestion of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah that the Army be withdrawn from the State and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) should be repealed. The nation is aware of this, therefore, it is not necessary to write anything more on this issue. Suffice to say that the situation in Kashmir valley continues to be highly volatile and it would be suicidal to withdraw the Army and the AFSPA from terrorists and separatist-infested Kashmir.

Yet another reason that embittered the relations between General VK Singh and the Congress-led UPA Government and the NC-Congress coalition Government in Jammu & Kashmir was the former General’s views on the Kashmir issue – a fact which is little known. It is imperative to reflect on what General VK Singh said about the nature of Kashmir problem and the failure of the Government to adopt a rational and national approach towards Jammu & Kashmir after becoming the Army chief. He was perhaps the first serving Army chief, who took a line completely different from that of the Defence Ministry and Home Ministry by rejecting the traditional and unsettling view that the Kashmir issue was political. He also dismissed the ongoing secessionist movement as communal and said without mincing words that the movement was based on a regressive ideology. He made this statement in the wake of the controversy created by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s October 2010 Srinagar statement.

Chidambaram had said: “Kashmir has a unique history and unique geography, therefore, Kashmir problem is unique too, which needs a unique solution. The solutions which are applicable to other States cannot implied to J&K.” The Defence Ministry took no time in contradicting the assessment of General VK Singh. It used the services of Lt Gen SA Hasnain to counter his senior and reassure the Kashmiri leadership, both separatist and the so-called mainstream, that the Government of India endorsed the view that Jammu & Kashmir was a political problem that needed a political solution. It was on January 29, 2011 that General VK Singh expressed his view on the nature of Kashmir problem and virtually said that the Government had all along mishandled the Kashmir issue and jeopardised the paramount national interests by pandering to communal and separatist forces in Kashmir, including the NC.

It would be only desirable to quote verbatim what he said that day during an interview to a news channel in Delhi. He had, inter-alia, said: “Jammu & Kashmir is a complicated set of things. There has to be a holistic view on what we do there. We have to take a very different view from the long-term perspective. Don’t take decisions for the sake of expediency for a certain purpose. You have to have focus and resolve and the Government should put some people on the job…Troops withdrawal is not an option at this time. The day 42 camps on the other side are wound up and Pakistan stops its proxy war, that would be the time to withdraw troops. Until that time, it is not possible. Jammu & Kashmir is not about mathematics. We have to be pragmatic about troops reduction. The prevalent undercurrents in the border State are ideologically focussed. Ignoring the ideology being preached in the Kashmir valley would be at one’s own peril. We must look very closely at the ideology being preached. What are we doing to counter this ideology”. Are the mainstream political parties (in this case the Congress and the NC) doing anything about it?

What General V K Singh said was not based on heresy. It was based on the ground realities as they existed in Kashmir. The Government of India, the Defence Ministry and the Home Ministry should have appreciated the views of General Singh in the larger national interest, but it was not to be for obvious reasons. On the contrary, the Defence Ministry fielded the Srinagar-based 15 Corps Commander, Lt Gen Hasnain, on February 1, 2011 to counter the Singh’s views. While addressing reporters on the sidelines of a function organised by the Army at 2 Sector Headquarters, Khanabal, Kashmir, Lt Gen Hasnain said: “Kashmir is a political issue and Army has no role to play in the decision with regard to the revocation of the AFSPA. Kashmir is a political issue and needs to be resolved politically”.

It is absurd to say that Lt Gen Hasnain, who is likely to be rewarded for his anti-national stand on Kashmir, spoke the language of Kashmiri separatists on its own. He undoubtedly spoke for and on behalf of the Government and told the votaries of Kashmir’s separation from India that New Delhi shared their view and not that of General VK Singh and that the UPA Government was committed to resolving the Kashmir issue politically. Lt Gen Hasnain, who is currently posted at the Army Headquarters in New Delhi and likely to be appointed as Indian ambassador to Poland, had maintained, and continue to maintain, very good relations both with Omar Abdullah and those who matter in New Delhi for reasons not difficult to fathom, the most important being is that he fully fits in the communal and perverted scheme of things of the UPA and the NC-Congress coalition both at the Centre and in the State.

The Congress-controlled UPA and the NC-led coalition Government in Jammu & Kashmir had perhaps hoped that General VK Singh would become inactive after his superannuation in 2012, but much to their chagrin it has not happened. What has happened is to the contrary. The former Army chief has become more active in the country’s social and political arenas and has been sharing dais with social activist Anna Hazare, yoga guru Baba Ramdev, BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and similar other honest social and political activists. Since the Sonia Congress is mortally afraid of these upright and committed Indians, it has started a vilification campaign against General V K Singh and ilk. It is heartening to note that the bulk of the Indian nation has seen through the sinister game plan of the Congress, the UPA and the NC and decided to decimate them sooner than later.

There is no doubt whatever that General VK Singh would emerge victorious as he is destined to play an important role the country’s socio-political life. He, like Narendra Modi and Baba Ramdev, is an invaluable asset for the nation that is anxiously looking forward for that day when India will become Congress-free and Narendra Modi will lead the country and obtain for the Motherland a status in the comity of self-respecting nations.

i dont fully agree with this synopsis since it claims baba ramdev as one of the invaluable assets which I dont think he is..and some other points like singh is doing this for fighting corruption etc..singh is a looking to get some position in future government but his intensions are corruption free..

 

[1971+]

Excellent piece from Kuldip Nayar. Highlighted some key points.

Shekhar Gupta and Indian express has become a Congi paper.

That post was by Jay Bhattacharjee , OP is by Kuldip Nayyar.

 

[agni 6]

http://http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Why-India-is-poor-at-making-its-own-weapons/Article1-832196.aspx

Why India is poor at making its own weapons

No government agency talks more about indigenisation and self-reliance than the ministry of defence and has a worse record to show for it. India earned a top ranking in the latest international arms transfer report of the Swedish think tank, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, as the world's largest arms importer.

It is a position, says retired Vice-Admiral Premvir Das, India will hold for years to come because its armed forces need to buy $ 40 - 50 billion in capital equipment.

There are two broad reasons why India fails so miserably to become more self-reliant in arms production.

One is a superstructure of inefficiency that is held in place by corruption and inertia. The Tatra truck deal has long been a byword in arms procurement incompetence. Over 25 years, the Indian army bought 7000 trucks from the Czech Republic at roughly double the cost they are sold in their home country. The indigenisation rate was so poor the trucks do not have right-hand drive to this day. General VK Singh's claim he was offered Rs. 140 million to keep India buying Tatras would explain why this absurd state of affairs existed for as long as it did

India has a reputation in the international arms industry for importing substandard equipment at inflated prices. As the SIPRI report points out, measured over a five-year period, Russia has remained India’s largest weapons supplier. But Russia’s comparative advantage in military sales is partly an ability to give huge kickbacks. The Russian Accounting Chamber, its CAG equivalent, in 2001 noted that the umbrella arms exporting firm, Rosoboroneksport, kept such convoluted finances it could not understand them. Trade experts privately say Indian middlemen in Moscow sales get 10 to 15% of the contract and 5%, curiously, has to be paid to the Russian government.

The second reason is the nexus between the mandarins of the defence ministry and the state-owned arms companies that keeps private Indian firms at arm’s length. As defence ministry officials privately admit, institutions like the Defence Research and Development Organisation and Hindustan Aeronautics prefer to import foreign-made weapons rather than allow the Tatas and Mahindras to get a real share of the contracts. Their fear: the competence of the private sector will marginalise them.

Even the official defence indigenisation figure of 30% being Made in India is a myth says retired Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal of the Combat Land Warfare School. “Ten to 12 percentage points of that is screwdriver usage – importing kits, assembling them and giving the smallest value addition.”

 

[MST]

That post was by Jay Bhattacharjee , OP is by Kuldip Nayyar.

The OP has been changed. I quoted it earlier (before it got changed). So thats caused the confusion. Thanks for pointing out.

 

[agni 6]

GovernanceNow.com | Gen Singh launches Twitter war on Shekhar Gupta

Gen Singh launches Twitter war on Shekhar Gupta


Stung by leaked report, former army chief says he has proof of Indian Express editor's alleged business deals, dares the paper to print
GN Bureau | new delhi | September 23 2013

Shekhar Gupta, the chief editor of the Indian Express, is a “UPA stooge”, says Gen VK Singh (retd). The former army chief posted 10 tweets [read them here] over Sunday and Monday, accusing Gupta of running a company that was involved in the scam-tainted Commonwealth Games and possessing a Rs 55-crore house in the exclusive Chanakyapuri locality in the heart of the capital.

Gen Singh’s blitzkrieg comes days after the Express reported that the former army had misused secret service funds and tried to topple Omar Abdullah’s government in Jammu and Kashmir. The Express said its news report was based on the findings of an official inquiry that also recommended a CBI probe.

The report was published on September 20, a day after the former army chief shared the dais with Narendra Modi.

The next day, the BJP questioned the timing of the story, and accused the government of vendetta, but there was no response immediately from Gen Singh. He has responded now, through Twitter, and has targeted the chief editor of the Express.

Earlier, on April 4, 2012, the Indian Express had done a story that hinted that Gen Singh had planned a coup bang in the middle of his battle with the government over his date of birth.

Here are the 10 tweets, the veracity of which, of course, could not be ascertained:

Some pieces of information about Shekhar Gupta, CE @IndianExpress: 1.His company was involved in Commonwealth Games (read scam) too (1/Many)
With a 55 Cr house on Malcha marg, he can be trusted to be a UPA stooge. No doubt he has been using IE as a medium to put out slander
Shekhar Gupta's company's data: He & his wife Neelam Jolly started a company Greenpine Agro Pvt Ltd in 2002. No accounts filed 4 many yrs
All accounts from 2003 to 2009 filed on Jan 2010 with Delhi RoC & current year 2010 filed on May 2010. (4/Many)
Closed down the company by filing EES (Early Exit Scheme like @RahulDumbGandhi backops) on Aug 30, 2010. #ShekharGupta @IndianExpress
Accounts are cooked up. One loan he took in 2002, for a meagre Rs12 lakh shows he that at the time he owned three 2 acre farms #ShekharGupta
Greenpine was a closely held company by husband & wife.They closed down in Aug 2010. @IndianExpress #ShekharGupta
Editor who has done so many 'investigative' reports filed balance sheets for eight years on one day -Jan 18'10 @IndianExpress #ShekharGupta
In 2004, balancesheets indicated an unsecured loan of Rs.45 lakh,but later,just as in case of the farm houses the balancesheets 'cleaned up'
I have more to say and share (with proof), but wonder if @IndianExpress will carry my story on their Chief Editor #ShekharGupta ?