Army chief’s woes far from over

New Delhi, Feb 11: A day after losing his age war in the Supreme Court, the woes of Indian Army Chief General VK Singh are far from over.

A case by his junior officer alleging him of spoiling his Annual Confidential Report (ACR) and blocking his promotion will come up for hearing on Feb 14 at Chandigarh branch of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), even as his fellow soldiers and well-wishers are prodding him to resign.

Major General Tejinder Singh Handa has moved the AFT against the Army Chief for victimizing him as he did not acceded to the General’s demand of changing his date of birth as a Deputy Military Secretary (MS) in December 2006. General Singh was then posted as the General-Officer-in-Commanding (GoC) of Ambala-based 2 Corps and Handa was a Brigadier.

Later on Singh went on to become the Army Commander of the Calcutta-based Eastern Army Command when Handa was the GoC of 57 Moutain Division under the former’s command. Claiming himself to be “a victim of the controversy over his age, Handa has been alleging that in Singh’s assessment of his performance from July 2, 2007 to June 30, 2008 has been biased.

Incidentally, much before the controversy broke out in public, Maj Gen Handa had filed a statutory complaint on August 27, 2010 blaming the General for spoiling his ACRs for not complying with the demands of changing Singh’s date of birth to serve his advantage. Maj Gen Handa has missed out from taking on his next rank of Lieutenant General by one point.

The Army Chief in a reply to the AFT’s notice has denied these allegations and further arguments will be carried on during the Feb 14 hearing.

Reeling under the “unexpected” order of the Supreme Court – as his near and dear ones are putting the turn of events as – the General is carry on with his business as usual. After monitoring the nearly two and a half hours court proceedings through electronic media, General Singh was off to Rajasthan for an official engagement on Friday evening.

General Singh returned to the capital on the Saturday evening and is scheduled to proceed for his visit to Britain on Feb 13. Defence Minister AK Antony after being vindicated in the court will also proceed for his visit to Saudi Arabia, the first ever by an Indian defence minister.

For General Singh’s next course of action wait till the dust settles.