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)

Adarsh Scam: Will the Ex Military Chiefs be Investigated?

Adarsh scam: Gidwani remanded in CBI custody till April 3
Published: Saturday, Mar 31, 2012, 1:17 IST
Place: Mumbai | Agency: PTI
A special CBI court in Mumbai on Friday remanded KL Gidwani, former Congress MLC and one of the main accused in Adarsh Housing Society case, in CBI custody till April 3.

The court had earlier refused to give the CBI Gidwani's fresh custody in the case. But earlier today, Bombay High Court quashed the lower court's order.

Allowing an application filed by CBI challenging the March 26 order of the special CBI court which had remanded Gidwani in judicial custody, Justice R C Chavan of the high court directed the lower court to decide the agency's request for further custody afresh.

The special CBI court had refused to extend Gidwani's CBI custody after accepting the defence lawyer's argument that the accused had already been in CBI's custody for 10 days in a bribery case related to the Adarsh scam.

So the agency had moved the high court.

In the special court this afternoon, CBI prosecutor Ejaz Khan argued that all the transactions (for the Society) were done through "six to seven layers" and the CBI had to get to the bottom of them.

Gidwani was the chief promoter of Adarsh Society in south Mumbai and was instrumental in securing crucial clearances from different government departments.

The Society allegedly stands on Defence Ministry's land, and has breached a host of environmental and civic laws.
Adarsh scam: Gidwani remanded in CBI custody
BMEL and Tatra Vectra under CBI Investigation
CBI Investigates BEML- Tatra Vectra Nexsus

Bribe row: Army chief targeted for not toeing govt line, says Team Anna

Bribe row: Army chief targeted for not toeing govt line, says Team Anna
Published: Thursday, Mar 29, 2012, 18:22 IST
Place: New Delhi | Agency: PTI
Team Anna on Thursday extended full support to Army Chief VK Singh, alleging that he was targeted for not "toeing" the government line on issues.
Activist Arvind Kejriwal alleged government has killed almost every institution by "planting its loyals".
"Those who refuse to toe govt line, like army chief and CAG, are targeted. We fully support army chief's struggle. We are proud of him," Kejriwal wrote on micro-blogging site 'Twitter'.
He said government appeared to be at war with the armed forces and the people of India.
Referring to the remarks against the army chief, he said, "Politicians, rather than discussing precarious security preparedness of India, are playing politics."
Another Team Anna member Kiran Bedi said it appeared that the Army Chief was surrounded by "senior officials with doubtful integrity".
"Had evidence but did not know how to fix it? Now he has! Laws of nature work when nothing else does. Trust in nature. Those riding on corruption and abuse of power will see their end sooner than later," she tweeted.
The comments came following Singh's remarks about him being offered a Rs14 crore bribe by a lobbyist to clear the sale of a tranche of 600 'substandard' Tatra trucks for the Army and his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh giving a grim picture of the country's military preparedness.
Bribe row: Army chief targeted for not toeing govt line, says Team Anna

Gen VK Singh is a hero for fighting the Enemy Within
by Venky Vembu Mar 29, 2012
For sure, Gen VK Singh has gone rogue. But I say: more power to you, Gen Singh. Even if, as some have suggested, you are doing it only for megalomaniacal reasons — or out of a sense of pettiness. Even though I can’t quite understand why you waited until now to say these things, I’m just plain glad you are saying them at least now.

Any self-respecting civilian government or military force or civil society ought to be celebrating Gen VK Singh for being a true warrior and taking on the Enemy Within. The problems that he highlights are our collective problems. Those problems have turned us into a banana republic far more than anything Gen Singh has done in severing the cosy, comfortable, clubby relationship between the military and the civilian administration.

If what it takes to get us even talk about the colossal mess we are in is for him to shake the government and our civil society out of our stupor, more power to you, Gen Singh.
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