Letter leak anti-national, will not spare culprit: Antony

Accepting he was “hurt” by the turn of events, Defence Minister AK Antony on Thursday said that the media leak of the confidential letter written by the Army Chief General VK Singh was an “anti-national act” and assured that the government will not “spare” the culprit.

The otherwise reticent Antony vehemently condemned the development and announced that the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has been asked to look into the matter and trace the leakage that brought the Army Chief’s letter with damning contents about country’s preparedness to open domain. The Army Chief had written the letter to the Prime Minister on March 12.

“Whoever leaked the letter, it is an anti-national act. It helps only our enemies,” Antony told reporters on the sideline of the 7^th international defence exhibition DefExpo. Informing that IB was asked to probe the issue, Antony added: “Once their report is received we will not stop there. We cannot spare the people behind this.”

Despite strong demand in the Parliament to sack the Army Chief, the Defence Minister refrained to point him out directly and said all three service chiefs enjoyed the confidence of the government. “All our three service chiefs enjoy the confidence of the government, otherwise how can they remain on the post,” Antony quickly replied to a pointed query if the government had lost confidence in General VK Singh after slew of controversies – first by dragging the government to court on age issue, then opening a can of worms by bringing a two-year old bribery scandal in public and then the media leak of the his scathing letter written to the PM.

The letter has disturbing facts about the military preparedness with most of its systems getting obsolete and a snail-paced acquisition system leaving the Army high and dry without weapons and ammunition.

This recent row hitting the military-government relationship saw an emotionally charged Antony defending his ministry in the Parliament for two consecutive days. Getting candid on the controversy the Defence Minister accepted he was hurt. “First day (in the Parliament) it was spontaneous. I was hurt. I said my feelings that day. We have so many controversies when it comes to national security everybody wants to know the truth,” said Antony.

“I do not want to live in fantasy let the IB inquiry complete. We will find out the culprits behind this anti-national act. We will not leave it there,” the Defence Minister assured.

On Wednesday a furore was created in the Parliament after the contents of the Army Chief’s letter surfaced in the media. Angry Parliamentarians were insisting the government to sack General Singh and said he was acting as a “frustrated” man.