The popular joke doing the round these days is that in Pakistan the army decides the age of the government while in India the government decides the age of the Army Chief! Now that is indeed a bit too farfetched since this is only the second time in the history of India’s 65 years long democratic tradition of civilian supremacy that a conflict has arisen at the highest levels between the centre and the military. Earlier at the start of the millennium, the retired and revered naval chief S.M Nanda was embroiled in an arm dealing controversy but that was a discord of a completely different dimension. This is the first time that the armed forces, since you cannot detach General V.K Singh from the very organization that he leads, has taken the case to the highest judiciary of the land. And that is not at all fine as far as firsts go.
This whole incident reminds one almost instinctively of a wound that is kept to fester. The issue is an unthinkable 36 years old and yet to be solved even as the Chief of the Army Staff is set to retire this year or the next, whichever way the water flows finally. It all started when as a sprightly 14 year old, Singh wrote his date of birth as May 10 1950 in the application form to the National Defense Academy. This was later corrected to 1951 by his father and also documented in the all-important class 10th certificate. What is it then if not bureaucratic bungling that the Military Secretary branch of the Defence Ministry that keeps suck records failed to rectify the error even as Singh toiled on to become the topmost troop?
The Supreme Court has rightly observed that the government of the day has handled such a critical case with complete callousness. The pride of the soldier is pivotal to the security of the nation. Political apathy cannot be seen to play with it. This date dilemma has to be sorted out as soon as can be.
