Age controversy of Army Chief General V K Singh

General V K Singh presently the Chief of Army Staff is involved in a date of birth controversy. He himself has given his date of Birth as 10 May 1950 in his application for admission to the National Defence Academy (NDA). On the basis of the age recorded in the application to NDA the Military Secretary branch recorded his date of birth as 10-5-1950. The records in Adjutant General (AG) Branch of the Indian Army, which is the official record keeper of the army, show Singh's date of birth as 10 May 1951 on the basis of a certificate from the 14th Rajput Regiment's officer certifying that Vijay Kumar Singh (V K  Singh) was born on 10-5-1951 as per the service record of V K Singh's father who was in the military service at Khadki in Pune of Maharashtra as a Major at that time.According to V K Singh, he had repeatedly asked for the correction of the records. According to V K Singh, he made a mistake of D O B in the application submitted by him as 1950 and he wanted the same to be corrected to 1951. This would have availed 1 more year of service in the Military. The Military Secretary branch quoted rules against change if age mentioned in the application form.

General V K Sing approached the Minister of Defence in 2011 to get the date of birth changed to 1951 in the Military Secretary branch records. The Defense Minister preferred to rely on the D O B as 1950 instead of 1951. Thereafter the General appealed to the Minister to reconsider the decision on the age which was rejected by the Minister. The General went to the Supreme Court of India (S C) against the decision of the minister. The S C noted that there was no dispute on the actual date of birth but the matter was as how it was recorded. The S C has also noted that Mr V K Singh has accepted the 1950 date on 3 occasions and refused to intervene in the matter. On 10-2-2012 Mr Singh withdrew his petition filed in the court on the above finding s of the court. Incidentally this is the 1st time an Officer of that high rank went to Court in the Military establishment.It is really a shame that the General took advantage of the date of Birth of 1950 on 3 occasions during his career and at the fag end of the service he wants advantage under the other date of birth also.

The bribe issue raised by General V K Singh at this juncture gives an impression that he wanted to create trouble for not giving him the benefit of the age rectification. This almost looks like a virtual blackmail from a Person of such a high rank. It is a very sad state of affairs for the country. The General should have been sacked as per the leaders of JD (U), S P and RJD.  .

President Smt Prathibha Patil should not appear to be looting the Country

As per the information the tour of the present President of India Smt Prathibha Patil Shekhavat so far is about Rs 205 crores. She has traveled for 79 days in 22 countries. For a country with mil.lions of poor people struggling to get 2 square meals a day, this type expenses are to be curtailed. She being the Number one citizen of the country has a great responsibility to set example to others. While she has to keep up the prestige of the Nation on tours, she can ponder as to whether the tour is absolutely essential. On essential tours she should ponder whether the expenses incurred for her trips were essential. Is it necessary for her to take so many relatives on foreign tours? Would she have taken so many relations on personal trips or spend so much money on her personal trips?

She has the distinction of being the first woman President of India and created a good impression on her maiden inauguration of the Joint session of Parliament. She is now having only about another 6 months time left. At least during these 6 months President Smt Prathibha Patil should try to remove the impression of an extravagant person when the expenses are to be incurred by the Government. As the first citizen of the country let us hope that she tries to set an example during the remainder of her tenure in view of the fact that our country is one with large number of poor people.

The Prime Minister and  Finance Minister should bring in some moderation of the expenses of the Ministers and the Government officials going abroad on official trips and drastically reduce the expenses. irrespective of whichever party rules at the Center or States the foreign tours are taken for granted and is considered as perks to the concerned. This attitude should be changed.

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Retirement age, Corruption, Army Chief and the Defence Ministry

 This is an article on the sordid episodes of the feud between the Defense Ministry and the  Army Chief General V K Singh and the attempt to sensationalize the issues by the General.

Since some time the relation between the current Army Chief Gen V. K. Singh and the Defense Ministry. It started with the retirement age issue of the resent Army chief. He had given 2 sets of birth certificate to the Government, one at the time of recruitment and another one subsequently. As per teh certificates the date of birth's are May 10, 1951 and another May 10, 1950. The Military Secretary branch recorded his date of birth as 10 May 1950 basing the application submitted by V K Singh to the National Defence Academy. On the verge of retirement the General raked up the issue and went to the Supreme Court, and dragged the Defense Ministry, for Justice.He lost this legal battle of his contention of "prejudice" and "perversity" against him by the Ministry. The bench of S C which heard the case observed that 'The bench said "no prejudice" was done to General Singh and there was "no perversity" or gross error in recognizing his date of birth as May 10, 1950'. He is decent enough not to attribute the judgement as a collusion.

This incident is an indicator of the type of person the General V. K. Singh is. He is the highest officer after the titular head of the defense forces, The President of India. Just for the sake of 1 more year of service was it worthwhile on his part to rake up the controversy?


Now the General V. K. Singh has raked up another controversy. He has alleged that one officer in the defense force has approached him with a bribe of Rs 14 crores for finalizing a deal of purchase of vehicles of the defense establishment. It is ridiculous and preposterous for the General to get  the news splashed in the ever obliging impudent media to make it a sensational issue on the eve of his retirement so that he gets the publicity for free. If what he say is true what kind of officer he is? As the boss of the defense establishment he should have immediately taken action against his own subordinate who had the temerity to offer bribe to him and then he should have rushed to the media with the action initiated. Is it not a reflection on his character. In his 'sensational exposure' of corruption he has stated that he reported this matter to the defense mintier. What prevented him from initiating action against the briber instead of oral complaint to the minister. He should have initiated action against the official concerned or passed on a message to the defense department concerned which is supposed to look into the matter and take suitable action. The concerned department is right under the General.


Such types of persons were there earlier, are there now and will be there in future also as long as the political parties behave as of now. The political parties in India have only two principles depending on whether they are on the side of Ruling the country or in Opposition camp. The parties in ruling side are expected to defend their stand and the opposition parties for opposing irrespective of the merit or the effect on the Nation. Both the sides do not exist to work unitedly on the important issues of poverty eradication, corruption, speedy justice to people and transparent administration etc. The Opposition parties have taken up the matter of General against the Government and are making a ruckus of the same. Every stick is good enough to beat the opponent. 


However, it is a good thing that the Defense Minister has ordered a CBI inquiry. I strongly feel that the issues of such people who are on the verge of retirement should be handle with care. Just because a stick is in hand should not be used to beat. It will only encourage such persons in future and leading to indiscipline and opportunism in services which will be adverse for administration.


It is very much to be regretted that the media which is supposed to be 4th limb of the institution of democracy is functioning like 5th columnists or yellow journalists. Watching the media will give an impression that the media is only to sensationalize the issues rather than helping to expose the ills of the society. The media assumes that whatever they feel correct is correct and all others should fall in line. They have a preliminary obligation to find out the merits at least prima facie instead of rushing to publicize issues. On every issue of the nation each channel wants to show they are the first to bring out the news even if it is a matter like the urination or going to stool of the person/s they consider as somebody.  Of course they or the Generals or the political parties or the social activists are not to be blamed as we get only what we deserve.

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