Veteran Community Please Wake Up

Dear Friends,
Gp Captain Anant Bewoor, the fearless warrior flying the Il-76 into the Maldives as given out by Sidharth Mishra, former Chief Gen VN Sharma and ACM Nimmi Suri has done it again. His fearless defence of the Chief Gen VK Singh needs emulating by us all. The Veteran community needs to wake up to our own good. Just because you get called to show your face on the TV does not give you the right to go beserk and say all what the anchor puts in your mouth, or hold to that old silly attitude of "Resign" as if that would ever solve any problem except to set another example of capitulation, which we accuse all the earlier Chiefs of.
I enclose his letter below
Wake up Veterans and Gaurav Sainani (Please don't use this term ex servicemen and poorv sainik) you have nothing to lose except your old ideas
Niranjan Malik

1. There has been abundant wisdom and vitriol floating on the internet about COAS ever since the age issue and now this letter, bribes, etc. The TV as usual has gone for him hammer and tongs, politicians making full use of the TV time to make inane political speeches, but all wanting a kill. That KC Singh, Foreign Service it looks, another fraud, pontificatiing, notwithstanding that the IFS has covered itself with ignomy since 1947, making more enemies than friends. But what is most astounding and tragic is that we retired fellows have joined the band wagon against the Chief.
2. The most vehement writers are the very people who have castigated previous chiefs of sychophancy and not standing up to the bureaucracy and politician. These very critics have damned previous chiefs for not resigning in the face of non-cooperation and callousness by the civilain powers. Many of us, incl Jaswant Singh are invoking Chetewode, " The Safety Honour---" and damning COAS for maligning the fauj. What standards are we maintaning? We want a Chief to stand up to civilians, take them on face to face, give them a taste of our capability to fight back, and when it is done, we cry foul? How else does a Chief fight the civilan? He can do it only on paper. The only reason why VK Singh is branded a villain, is because we ex-faujis have made him look like one.
3. Many are talking about Gen Timmy, and his resignation in 1959. That was 53 years back, the environment was different. Timmy was a young man comparatively in his 50s, VK Singh is 62. Media coverage was pitiable. India was an infant nation. What really did Timmy achieve by rsigning and then withdrawing? What will be achieved by VK resigning? The civilian wins, thats all. We want a Chief who fights, stands up against babus/netas, and when he does it we castigate him? No one in this group or on TV has come up with any suggestion of how COAS will tell the country that defence preparedness is bad. Every Chief writes his own letter to the PM & RM. Because it has to be on record that the current incumbent has apprised the Govt of the correct ground position. The PM / RM and their babus file the letter, send a reply that it is being looked at and return to politicking and chamchagiri to stay politically and bureaucratically alive. These fact never come out into the open, Indians never know. Now they know, because someone has leaked the letter. How has India become weaker by this leak? Does anyone think that the enemies dont know we are weak in many sectors? The babu/neta never want this info in the Indian public domain, because he does not wish to remedy it. 126 Rafaels will do nothing for India's air defence unless all other eqpt comes in.
4. We faujis are behaving exactly as the babu/neta want us to behave, COAS has done the only thing available to him to corner the babu/neta, but we ex faujis have let him down. What he has done is placed the country before himself, even though he will get brickbats yet he has told it the way it actually is. Is there another way? The ESM cannot do anything, serving officers nothing, Hazare can do nothing, DRDO will never do anything, arms dealers with their senior retired faujis will want the system to continue. Imagine, the Army budget paying 60 lakhs margin for each Tatra, whats left for guns and butter? What the COAS has shown is that most of the inflated Defence Budget is going for margins and profits. If 30 COAS's have kept quiet, is it not time for this one to say it? And we ex-faujis disagree Amazing. Lets not split hair about the methodologies. VK must have looked at many options, many scenarios, many repercussions, many exits, many opinions from colleagues. If he had shut up, retired in May, and then had we come to know through Wikileaks, all of us would have said why did not VK tell us, bad chief, just like all his predecessors, gutless wonder. Damned if you do, damned if you dont.
5. I humbly suggest that we now hold our comments, let the combatants fight it out, we should watch, wait and then win. After all Satya Me Vijayate, who dares wins, fortune favours the brave.
Anant Bewoor
Lt Gen NS Malik, PVSM (Veteran)