Within hours of attending the Pakistan National Day celebrations at the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi, Union Minister and former Army Chief General VK Singh voiced his displeasure on Twitter.
Singh tweeted that he attended the event as a part of his job, that he was ‘bound’ as a Minister, calling it an ‘obligation’.
But along with the ‘Duty’ came these mysterious ‘Disgust’ tweets, that had the media speculating even further -
Then possibly, came a rap on the knuckles from party bosses. At a late night press conference, Singh, red-faced, read out a clarification, stating that his “disgust” was merely aimed at a section of the media.
The Opposition was quick to pounce on the gaffe, asking Singh to resign if he resented being at Pakistan Day function -
In 2011, General Singh maintained that he was born in 1951 and not 1950, disagreeing with the records at the Ministry of Defence and the Indian Military Academy.
Singh was due to retire in 2012. A change in his year of birth would have extended his tenure till 2013.
Singh escalated the matter to the Supreme Court, which refused to entertain his petition altogether.
The General lost face and was forced to retire in 2012.
Soon after the age row concluded, the Defence Ministry authorities detected that the office room of then Defence Minister AK Antony had been bugged.
As the Intelligence Bureau conducted a probe into the matter, General Singh - who denied any involvement - was a prime suspect in the case.
In March 2012, General VK Singh alleged that Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh had offered him Rs. 14 crore for clearing a bulk purchase of the all-terrain Tatra trucks used by the Indian Army.
The Central Bureau of Investigation conducted an inquiry into the matter, following the allegation and filed a charge sheet against Tejinder Singh.
Not long after, Tejinder Singh sued VK Singh and five others for defamation. Questions remain about the veracity of Singh’s charge against his junior.
In a letter that exposed gaps in India’s security apparatus, General VK Singh had written a letter in 2012 to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, disclosing that the army’s tanks had run out of ammunition, that air defence was as good as obsolete, and that the infantry was short of key weaponry.
Sacrosanct as the communication had been, it was leaked.
Yet again, questions were raised whether the General was in any way responsible for the leak.
In 2013, an army inquiry stated that General VK Singh had set up a secret intelligence unit, the Technical Support Division (TSD), which misused its funds in an attempt to topple the Omar Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Singh, however, denied the charge. He said the money was spent by the intelligence unit to draw youth in the state towards “constructive work.” But the damage was done.
Discretion, it seems, is not the better part of valor for this General at least.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)
Published: 24 Mar 2015,06:20 PM IST