Retired Army officers react on VK Singh's age row

Hindustan Times
New Delhi, January 16, 2012
Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi (retd), former Vice Chief of Army Staff, said: “I am glad that the Chief has approached the court. It is a matter of honour. It will help the Army as it shows he is a strong chief. The ministry of defence should have sorted it out in house. But they took it to media. You cannot play with Chief of Army Staff on technical grounds.”

Lt Gen Raj Kadyan (retd), former Vice Chief of Army Staff and Chairman, Indian Ex-servicemen Movement (IESM): “It is unfortunate and unprecedented. He should have resigned and then approached the court. As an individual, he has full justification in seeking justice for him, but it will damage the image of the Army.”

Maj Gen Rajender Nath (retd), a military historian: “I am very sad at the development. I sincerely wish it should have been avoided. Indian Army is the second biggest Army in the world and this sort of development does not bring good name. The General should have sorted it earlier in his career.”

Air Marshal RS Bedi (retd) said, “Both sides are wrong (government and Chief of Army Staff). It is unfortunate. Chief should have resigned and then approach the court. We have done damage to the institution of the Chief. On the other hand, government bungled it. Matriculation certificate decides the date of birth in this country. The government and the bureaucrats are not understanding the sensitivity attached to the post of Chief of Army Staff."
Retired Army officers react on VK Singh's age row

Age Row- Bureaucracy conspiracy?
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh does not want to comment on the controversy over army chief General V K Singh's age because it is a 'sensitive issue'.
Union Defence Minister A K Antony is 'very sorry' about what is happening. Then why don't these two gentlemen at least ensure that the issue is settled with dignity, and the army chief's birth date is recognised as 1951 as per the official records?
There is a certain intolerance creeping into government that sees a contrary view as dissent, and reacts to it with a heavy hand. Any officer who does not agree with the often blinkered views emanating from the corridors of power is axed, as many will testify, with the result that most now hesitate to speak their minds.
This might make the politicians happy, but the fact of the matter is that they now rarely benefit from informed and impartial opinion.
In this particular case, however, it is more to do with getting a chief of their choice into government.
The poor army chief does not know what he is up against, as it is difficult to box at shadows and conspiracies that do not reveal themselves.
A petty government has pushed the army chief into a corner, feels Seema Mustafa

Formulation of the succession Plan
Govt going by army's word on Gen's age by Nagendar Sharma & Rahul Singh, Hindustan Times
Two immediate predecessors of the current chief — General JJ Singh in 2006 and General Deepak Kapoor in 2009 — concluded that the legally maintainable year of birth for General VK Singh can only be 1950. The government’s subsequent decisions were based on this. He was commissioned in the army in 1970.
Govt going by army's word on Gen's age

Comment
As a techno-legal view, if the COAS resigns his commission before going to court and subsequently the court upholds his stand and gives a verdict that his yob is 1951, legally the Resigned / lost / surrendered President's Commission, CANNOT BE REVOKED AND HE CANNOT BE RE-COMMISSIONED.
Veteran Gp Capt Subramanian

Indian Government Asks Army to get off Facebook

Earlier this week, TV media was reporting of how 4 naval officers leaked confidential information on social networking sites divulging information about the location of warships and other confidential data etc.

The four officers were being tracked for quite some time by naval authorities for allegedly leaking confidential information, including location of warships, armaments being carried by them and their patrolling patterns (source) and now, government is reported to have issued orders asking all its men, officers and other ranks, who had joined social networking sites like Facebook or Orkut earlier to immediately quit them.

Similar incident happened in 2009 when government advised army to stay away from social networking sites and even banned social networking sites/ picture sharing sites for Indian diplomats.

“The Army’s worry is that public access to such information could increase the vulnerabilities of both the Army and its personnel. Some information could provide clues to the Army’s strategies. It could also make personnel more vulnerable to things like honeytraps (spies using sex to extract information)”.

Incidentally, Indian Prime Minster joined Twitter 2 days back.
Indian Government Asks Army to get off Facebook

Banning or curbing social media could become a major demotivating factor for youth aspiring to join the Army at all levels
This very important aspect is actually a point currently not even on our radar. We must find a practical and balanced solution in consonance with the times which would not only ensure personal freedom but also hands-on adherence to security requirements. If social media is taken as an enemy of security then so could be normal day to day human interaction, all types of computing devices and mobiles. Would be, or could we ban those too? Posted by Navdeep / Maj Navdeep Singh
Read More: Social media and the Armed Forces : Need to refrain from knee-jerk reactions

Hereditary Members of Indian Parliamentary Monarchy

India a Democracy or a Monarchy? Heading towards a Hereditary Monarch and Indian Princelings
India: A Portrait by Patrick French – review
Patrick French's affectionate portrait of modern India hymns the tiger economy but ignores the country's contradictions and complexities

French retells the story of Ramanujan, the brilliant young Tamil mathematician who died in England before he could fulfil his promise. The suggestion is that the talents of 1.2 billion Ramanujans – all of them tremendously multicultural and supremely talented – are on the verge of exploding. The leading historian of modern India, Ramachandra Guha, chose to end his magisterial work, India After Gandhi, on a more sombre note: his countrymen, he pointed out, could be legitimately proud of their democracy but they had to remember that the task of lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty still lay ahead of them.

Patrick French offered this startling revelation about the Indian Parliament:
"Every MP in the Lok Sabha under the age of 30 had in effect inherited a seat, and more than two-thirds of the 66 MPs aged 40 or under were HMPS [Hereditary Members of Parliament]. In addition, this new wave of Indian lawmakers would have a decade’s advantage in politics over their peers, since the average MP who had benefited from family politics was almost 10 years younger than those who had arrived with ‘No Significant Family Background’. In the Congress, the situation was yet more extreme: every Congress MP under the age of 35 was an HMP. If the trend continued, it was possible that most members of the Indian Parliament would be there by heredity alone, and the nation would be back to where it had started before the freedom struggle, with rule by a hereditary monarch and assorted Indian princelings."

He has divided his book into three parts: Rashtra (nation), Lakshmi (wealth), and Samaj (society). While that's a neat division, a multi-everything nation like India can be sub-divided in many different ways. The deeper question is: does it hold together and form a coherent narrative? That depends on the reader's expectations.
Read more: India: A Portrait by Patrick French – review
Another Review: India: Click here