India's role models for corruption- A Banana Republic?
Quiz: Can anyone guess the Senior Congress Minister and who his relative is?
by FP Staff Apr 5, 2012
The sensational report in the Indian Express on Wednesday, which insinuated that the civilian government was perturbed by unreported Army troop movements on the night of January 16 in and around New Delhi, may have been ‘masterminded’ by a senior minister in the UPA government, according to media accounts.
The Indian Express report, which suggested (without saying so explicitly) that the government was fearful of a ‘coup’ by the Army chief, Gen VK Singh (who was then locked in an unprecedent conflict over his date of birth), was intended to “drain away support for Gen Singh” from within the political establishment, according to The Sunday Guardian.
Citing unidentified sources, the Sunday Guardian claims that the senior minister “tricked the (Indian Express) into running a baseless report”; it alleges, sensationally, that the senior minister’s relative is connected to arms procurement lobbies that have been “gunning for” Gen VK Singh for his having taken on corruption in defence purchases.
“A close relative of the minister in question has been regularly meeting with arms merchants and their lobbyists, including on his many visits abroad,” the newspaper said, citing its sources.
It speculated, citing other military sources, that the insinuation about a coup attempt was intended not merely to discredit the Army chief but to paralyse the Army in its training functions. “Already, procurements have slowed to dangerous levels… Should the military’s freedom to undertake routine training exercise of the sort described… get curtailed (because of imagined fears of a coup), the military would very son lose its fighting edge,” it added.
But Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta, the man at the centre of a Twitter storm following the publication of the article, dismissed the allegations that the government had fed him the sensational story.
The suggestion that “someone in government would give me the story to publish… runs into many contradictions,” Gupta told CNN-IBN late on Wednesday.
“If the story was given to us by the government to put a General in his place, why would the government deny it?” Gupta wondered. “We are not such clowns that we would put ourselves up to these denials.”
The report that the Indian Express published was based entirely on facts, Gupta told NDTV. “We look at facts, we check them, we assess them and then we put them out in public domain…”
Acknowledging that people either say that it was a government plant or that “we are traitors”, Gupta noted that Indian Express had staked its credibility on the report. “We put our necks on the line. This is not a blog under a funny name like kaala kutta or safed billi… this is a genuine newspaper story… A lot of work has gone into it. We are quite happy to put facts like this in the public domain. Let them be scrutinised.”
As Firstpost has noted before, the entire controversy surrounding the tensions between the Army establishment and the civilian government – which are at the heart of the Indian Express article – are linked to the shadowy world of arms procurement deals.
That intricate web involves, by some accounts, some Indian politicians, even if there is as yet no confirmation of the role they played.
An earlier column in The Sunday Guardian (here) had explicitly named the Minister who, it alleged, is at the centre of the controversy. Subramanian Swamy too has alleged that the high-profile Union Minister’s son was linked to arms agents.
The plot is thickening. Now that the can of worms has been opened, much more muck is sure to come tumbling out.
‘Coup politics’: Did a senior minister plant the spooky report?
Quiz answer: A wild guess only- Mr P Chidambaram and his relative who is none other than his son who is an arms lobbyist. Will the powerful be tagged? Prime Minister ManMohan Singh is powerless to reign in the corrupt. What the corrupt Politicans desire is an immobilised Military which will line their pockets. Two hoots to National security that seems the motto of the Home Minister. One is sure Sekhar Gupta will be amply rewarded for his spooky story. One can expect many more encores from the duo...
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Friday, April 6, 2012
Did arms lobby neuter both Antony and Gen VK Singh?
Apr 6, 2012 by RSN Singh, Canary Trap
The biggest curse for any Indian today is probity. Had Gen VK Singh accepted the Rs 14 crore bribe he claimed he was offered, he would have been the darling of the establishment and would have rode to the office of governor of some state on retirement.
The revelations by the army chief regarding an attempt to bribe him by a Lt Gen during the course of an interview with a national daily was known to this author and informed people in the journalist fraternity. The fact that there exists evidence by way of a taped conversation between the said Lt Gen and the army chief is also not a new input. This author had written about the role of this Lt Gen in trying to bribe the army chief at the behest of certain arms supplier in an earlier Firstpost article, “Who’s trying to fix the army chief by raking up his age?” in July 2011.
This article was widely circulated. The offer of bribe was to push the sale of Tatra vehicles at an exorbitant price. A particular firm was purchasing second-hand Tatra vehicles and selling it through Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) at more than double the cost. Reportedly, while the cost of each vehicle off the shelf was around Rs 30-40 lakh, there was a bid by the arms lobby to sell it to the Indian army for about Rs 1 crore.
The army chief refused to put the army and the country to such a massive loss of tax-payer money. It is then that the Lt Gen allegedly offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore. When the army chief did not relent, he is understood to have pleaded that army chiefs before the present incumbent had all played ball and those who will succeed him would also do so. Tatra vehicles have been procured by the Indian army since 1986.
Significantly, the army chief said that he immediately reported the matter to the defence minister and offered to quit if he was considered a ‘misfit’. This offer to quit is pregnant in import, and its depth and linkages are yet to unravel.
A conscientious and God-fearing defence minister did acknowledge in the Rajya Sabha that the matter was indeed reported to him and he stated that he sank his head in his hands. Was it because of the conflict between his ‘head and heart’? Or in other words, was it because of the conflict between the defence minister’s personal integrity and political integrity or political compulsions?
It is rather well known that the defence minister has always held the army chief in very high esteem for reasons of personal integrity, something which resonates with his own personality. Some sources have revealed to this author that Antony had almost decided to rule in favour of Gen VK Singh in respect to the date of birth controversy after the first opinion of the law ministry, which categorically upheld the general’s contention. It was then that powers in positions superior to Antony compelled him to readdress the case to the law ministry. It did weigh heavily on his conscience, and there were political offers and assurances to recompense the hurt caused by the deliberate miscarriage of truth and justice in ways more than one.
The general found it hard to buy the bargain on a basic issue that questioned his character. Notwithstanding the efforts of emissaries he did not relent and offered to resign. The political class, prodded by a megalomaniac bureaucracy for fear of the ‘succession plan’ being upset in deference to the arms lobby, as also the unacceptable adverse political fallout for reasons of political funding requirements, began to threaten the general that should he choose to offer his resignation it would not be accepted.
The general was thus driven to the Supreme Court.
The establishment, more so powers superior to Antony, were unnerved by this development, as they were acutely conscious that the general’s case was ‘open and shut’. Leave alone experienced lawyers, even a first year law student will vouch for the fact. What happened thereafter is well known. Every institution in India has probably discredited itself in this age row.
It is not that the army was not confronted earlier with such instances of discrepancies in dates of birth of officers. They are routine and are resolved quickly and appropriately. An exactly similar case was resolved in the late 1990s just one day before the retirement of one Col Ramesh Chandra Dixit. VK Singh was made the first and last exception. Last exception, because the MoD or the Army Headquarters consequent to their ruling on Gen VK Singh’s age, cannot legally dare to reiterate that the Army List, or the Military Secretary’s Branch enjoy primacy over the Adjutant General’s Branch with matters pertaining to date of birth of officers.
What was therefore perpetrated on the army chief was a fraud. A fraud so outrageous that it seemingly reduces India to the category of Banana Republic. Who perpetrated this fraud? It was two army chiefs in succession, whose reputations are today under attack for their unsavory deeds and involvement in various scams. Imagine an army chief appropriating flats meant for families of Kargil martyrs.
Can it get worse? It is no wonder that these army chiefs, who as father figures, should have protected the professional and personal integrity of their subordinates, chose to force Gen Singh to accept a particular date of birth, failing which there was an implied threat that the controversy would be used to derail him. They should have instead apologised for the omissions and commissions of a particular branch of the army headquarters. Once the so-called ‘acceptance’ was obtained on the repeated plea of ‘organisational constraints’, the army chiefs began to breath easy.
Gen Singh’s subsequent pleadings to explain the ‘organizational constraints’ fell on deaf ears. The sigh of relief was because the ‘succession plan’ as desired by the arms lobby was now in place.
The Indian army and the army personnel as such are not safe under such chiefs.
The bureaucrats became part of the design only after Gen Singh raked up the issue of his date of birth as COAS (Chief of Army Staff). Four former chief justices of India, all of them with impeccable credentials, gave opinions in his favour, but this did not appeal to the moral sense of the ministry. That the law ministry gave an opinion categorically upholding Gen Singh’s stand, did not help. When the general said it was not a question of additional few months, but his honour, it did not help. He was ridiculed, not only …………….by the political and bureaucratic establishment but by some retired generals as well.
These retired generals are now, courtesy television channels, very familiar faces. All of them have a dubious past. One of them was forced to resign from the army because of IB reports regarding his indiscriminate womanising. The other is known to have run away with his senior’s wife, and the third was in the dock for possessing a false degree. So much for the detractors of Gen Singh!
The biggest curse for any Indian today is probity. Had Gen VK Singh accepted the Rs 14 crore bribe he claimed he was offered, he would have been the darling of the establishment and would have rode to the office of governor of some state on retirement.
The revelations by the army chief regarding an attempt to bribe him by a Lt Gen during the course of an interview with a national daily was known to this author and informed people in the journalist fraternity. The fact that there exists evidence by way of a taped conversation between the said Lt Gen and the army chief is also not a new input. This author had written about the role of this Lt Gen in trying to bribe the army chief at the behest of certain arms supplier in an earlier Firstpost article, “Who’s trying to fix the army chief by raking up his age?” in July 2011.
This article was widely circulated. The offer of bribe was to push the sale of Tatra vehicles at an exorbitant price. A particular firm was purchasing second-hand Tatra vehicles and selling it through Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) at more than double the cost. Reportedly, while the cost of each vehicle off the shelf was around Rs 30-40 lakh, there was a bid by the arms lobby to sell it to the Indian army for about Rs 1 crore.
The army chief refused to put the army and the country to such a massive loss of tax-payer money. It is then that the Lt Gen allegedly offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore. When the army chief did not relent, he is understood to have pleaded that army chiefs before the present incumbent had all played ball and those who will succeed him would also do so. Tatra vehicles have been procured by the Indian army since 1986.
Significantly, the army chief said that he immediately reported the matter to the defence minister and offered to quit if he was considered a ‘misfit’. This offer to quit is pregnant in import, and its depth and linkages are yet to unravel.
A conscientious and God-fearing defence minister did acknowledge in the Rajya Sabha that the matter was indeed reported to him and he stated that he sank his head in his hands. Was it because of the conflict between his ‘head and heart’? Or in other words, was it because of the conflict between the defence minister’s personal integrity and political integrity or political compulsions?
It is rather well known that the defence minister has always held the army chief in very high esteem for reasons of personal integrity, something which resonates with his own personality. Some sources have revealed to this author that Antony had almost decided to rule in favour of Gen VK Singh in respect to the date of birth controversy after the first opinion of the law ministry, which categorically upheld the general’s contention. It was then that powers in positions superior to Antony compelled him to readdress the case to the law ministry. It did weigh heavily on his conscience, and there were political offers and assurances to recompense the hurt caused by the deliberate miscarriage of truth and justice in ways more than one.
The general found it hard to buy the bargain on a basic issue that questioned his character. Notwithstanding the efforts of emissaries he did not relent and offered to resign. The political class, prodded by a megalomaniac bureaucracy for fear of the ‘succession plan’ being upset in deference to the arms lobby, as also the unacceptable adverse political fallout for reasons of political funding requirements, began to threaten the general that should he choose to offer his resignation it would not be accepted.
The general was thus driven to the Supreme Court.
The establishment, more so powers superior to Antony, were unnerved by this development, as they were acutely conscious that the general’s case was ‘open and shut’. Leave alone experienced lawyers, even a first year law student will vouch for the fact. What happened thereafter is well known. Every institution in India has probably discredited itself in this age row.
It is not that the army was not confronted earlier with such instances of discrepancies in dates of birth of officers. They are routine and are resolved quickly and appropriately. An exactly similar case was resolved in the late 1990s just one day before the retirement of one Col Ramesh Chandra Dixit. VK Singh was made the first and last exception. Last exception, because the MoD or the Army Headquarters consequent to their ruling on Gen VK Singh’s age, cannot legally dare to reiterate that the Army List, or the Military Secretary’s Branch enjoy primacy over the Adjutant General’s Branch with matters pertaining to date of birth of officers.
What was therefore perpetrated on the army chief was a fraud. A fraud so outrageous that it seemingly reduces India to the category of Banana Republic. Who perpetrated this fraud? It was two army chiefs in succession, whose reputations are today under attack for their unsavory deeds and involvement in various scams. Imagine an army chief appropriating flats meant for families of Kargil martyrs.
Can it get worse? It is no wonder that these army chiefs, who as father figures, should have protected the professional and personal integrity of their subordinates, chose to force Gen Singh to accept a particular date of birth, failing which there was an implied threat that the controversy would be used to derail him. They should have instead apologised for the omissions and commissions of a particular branch of the army headquarters. Once the so-called ‘acceptance’ was obtained on the repeated plea of ‘organisational constraints’, the army chiefs began to breath easy.
Gen Singh’s subsequent pleadings to explain the ‘organizational constraints’ fell on deaf ears. The sigh of relief was because the ‘succession plan’ as desired by the arms lobby was now in place.
The Indian army and the army personnel as such are not safe under such chiefs.
The bureaucrats became part of the design only after Gen Singh raked up the issue of his date of birth as COAS (Chief of Army Staff). Four former chief justices of India, all of them with impeccable credentials, gave opinions in his favour, but this did not appeal to the moral sense of the ministry. That the law ministry gave an opinion categorically upholding Gen Singh’s stand, did not help. When the general said it was not a question of additional few months, but his honour, it did not help. He was ridiculed, not only …………….by the political and bureaucratic establishment but by some retired generals as well.
These retired generals are now, courtesy television channels, very familiar faces. All of them have a dubious past. One of them was forced to resign from the army because of IB reports regarding his indiscriminate womanising. The other is known to have run away with his senior’s wife, and the third was in the dock for possessing a false degree. So much for the detractors of Gen Singh!
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Troop movement report is irresponsible journalism: Ex-deputy Army chief
Troop movement report is irresponsible journalism: Ex-deputy Army chief
Source: Anupriya Kumar, Dailybhaskar.com | Last Updated 22:14(04/04/12)
New Delhi: The front-page Indian Express report on the late night January 16 military movement is an exaggerated account of a routine military exercise, and is an example of irresponsible journalism, Lieutenant General (Retired) Raj Kadyan said today.
In an exclusive interview to Dailybhaskar.com, the former Former deputy Army chief said that before publishing the report, the newspaper should have carried a preliminary check with the army to confirm what the purpose of the movement was.
"The military exercise did occur late at night on January 16, but it was a routine movement. A movement that involves a couple of units from an Army as extensive as ours must not be treated as anything abnormal," Lt Gen Kadyan said.
"It did not deserve to be blown out of proportion," he added.
Responding to the failure of the Army to inform the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Jan 16 exercise, he said the Army might have made a procedural lapse and can now be asked to provide an explanation of the same.
Lt General Kadyan also dismissed the contention that there could be a link between the age row between General VK Singh and the government of India, and the Jan 16-17 military movement."
"It must have been simply a coincidence. The order for the movement of the units must have been given by someone who I am sure did not even know that any petition has been filed by the current Army chief."
He also rejected the rumours of a military coup in a country that has a stable political system, which makes a military takeover impossible.
"Such things occur in countries beleaguered with political unstability and widespread unrest. Such a situation does not exist in India since our system is working fine."
Lt General Kadyan added, "It is unfortunate that a report carried by what is believed to be a credible publication ended with a statement that casts aspersions on the loyalty of the army in general, and General VK Singh in particular, toward the nation."
click here for the original post
Source: Anupriya Kumar, Dailybhaskar.com | Last Updated 22:14(04/04/12)
New Delhi: The front-page Indian Express report on the late night January 16 military movement is an exaggerated account of a routine military exercise, and is an example of irresponsible journalism, Lieutenant General (Retired) Raj Kadyan said today.
In an exclusive interview to Dailybhaskar.com, the former Former deputy Army chief said that before publishing the report, the newspaper should have carried a preliminary check with the army to confirm what the purpose of the movement was.
"The military exercise did occur late at night on January 16, but it was a routine movement. A movement that involves a couple of units from an Army as extensive as ours must not be treated as anything abnormal," Lt Gen Kadyan said.
"It did not deserve to be blown out of proportion," he added.
Responding to the failure of the Army to inform the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Jan 16 exercise, he said the Army might have made a procedural lapse and can now be asked to provide an explanation of the same.
Lt General Kadyan also dismissed the contention that there could be a link between the age row between General VK Singh and the government of India, and the Jan 16-17 military movement."
"It must have been simply a coincidence. The order for the movement of the units must have been given by someone who I am sure did not even know that any petition has been filed by the current Army chief."
He also rejected the rumours of a military coup in a country that has a stable political system, which makes a military takeover impossible.
"Such things occur in countries beleaguered with political unstability and widespread unrest. Such a situation does not exist in India since our system is working fine."
Lt General Kadyan added, "It is unfortunate that a report carried by what is believed to be a credible publication ended with a statement that casts aspersions on the loyalty of the army in general, and General VK Singh in particular, toward the nation."
click here for the original post
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