Indian Government's imbroglio on General V K Singh's age issue.

Ex bureaucrat P M Belliappa’s article in The Hindu dated 29th Jan 2012 was interesting though it was another run of the mill by yet another typical Indian bureaucrat. Typical. Why typical? We will discuss this last but look at the author’s arguments now.

The author starts with a profound judgement that the Army Chief General V K Singh is fond of being younger like women. That is fine considering that everyone wants to look younger these days including Mr Belliappa and we can dismiss his observation lightly as hilarious. Whoever wants to look older or his real age? But to rest a case that a person is older or younger should be based on facts not presumptions. The author is guilty of attempting to drag us into a bureaucratic trap by habit. What are his facts to substantiate the Govt claim? The Public have a right to know. There was none in his article.

The two instances he quotes are interesting but though they appear analogous, they are superficial to the issue at hand. The claim against Judge A S Anand was false and the Judge Ramachandra Iyer supposedly resigned though it was difficult to believe there were birth records in early 1900s which was preserved for nearly 60 years. We are not given to understand the authenticity of the birth record either. Occasions such as Shashtiabadapoorthi are held on star birthday and not based on English calendar. Most often birthdays are recorded either as hearsay or as astrological jadakams. But both these analogies differ from the army chief’s case as the present claim is for a factual recognition of a DOB which was lower than the one on records. The description on the working of the Public dept seems an attempt to spice up an otherwise bland article planned to pull down the Army Chief.

There is also an irrelevant appreciation of Manmohan Singh in the article for keeping mum on the issue. Is there any issue on which the PM has ever opened his mouth unless pressurized by Opposition? How has this quietness a proof of his wisdom as claimed by him? Bureaucrats believe sycophancy will bring practical benefits and what else can one presume here for an unsubstantiated claim.

Let us see the facts of the case now:

The present Army General V;K Singh was born on 10 May 1951 at the Military Hospital at Khadki in Pune while his father was posted as a Major in Indian Army in Pune. As required by Army regulations, his father informed his army unit the birth of his son, and V K Singh’s date of birth was recorded in the service records of the father, Major Jagat Singh, as 10 May 1951.

As a fourteen year old boy, Singh wrote his year of birth as 1950 in his application form for admission to the National Defence Academy in 1965. His father provided the NDA with documentation (a certificate from 14 Rajput Regiment's commanding officer certifying Vijay Kumar Singh's date of birth as 10 May 1951 as per service records of the father) on 3 August 1965 correcting the mistake much before VK Singh took the NDA's written exam in June 1966. The Indian Military Academy (IMA) where he received training also corrected his date of birth as 10 May 1951 when he submitted documentary evidence. However, the Military Secretary branch recorded his date of birth as 10 May 1950 on the basis of his application form to NDA. 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. Singh has repeatedly asked for the date to be corrected by the Military Secretary branch.

Another fact was that the Military Secretary (MS) wrote to (Ministry of Defence) MoD to fix DOB of General V.K. Singh as 10 May 1950, and Bimal Julka, then Joint Secretary [JS (G)] disagrees with the line of thinking and directs MS to carry out an inquiry on DOB issue in conjunction with AG;instead of carrying out the inquiry, “Inquiry Not To Be Held” is endorsed by the Chief / MS. Why this manipulation was allowed to take place is the fundamental question and a genuine error not corrected? I know of instances wherein many Officers have corrected their date of births by giving affidavits in the 70s and 80s, some of them false. A colleague of my father, who was also his classmate, gained 5 years this way and was in Tamilnadu Government Service for many years after my father in law retired. But for a genuine factual error, a hullabaloo is raised.

The Government wants to right a wrong and doesn't want to correct a wrong based on facts. How stupid can a government get to be?

There is a brilliant argument that the Army Chief should quit office and wait for Supreme Court’s verdict. Does our Constitution prohibit serving officers from approaching courts? Not to my knowledge. If Officers are not to approach courts, why do we have CAT, SAT and Military tribunals not to forget other Courts which should explicitly reject petitions by serving members of government if they were wrong. Supreme Court ruling that matriculation certificate is sole authority for DOB and inputs by AG that the DOB of General V.K. Singh has been 10 May 1951 consistently with them. Why this desperation on the part of GoI to deal with Army Chief and wont their stature grow if they had an open mind on this issue or on any other issue. Indian bureaucracy is terribly egoistic and they can never be fair nor they can act to appear to act as fair too.

If the Army chief had resigned and the Supreme Court decided in the affirmative to the request, the judgement would have become worthless, which was what the government desires. The author seems to put forth the government’s view point, typical of a bureaucrat but not so typical of an ex bureaucrat, if he doesn’t have an axe to grind.

Now let me explain why the arguments are typical. Indian bureaucrats are modelled after the British who founded Bureaucracy in India. Today’s bureaucrats think like British rulers and also believe that native Indians are meant to be ruled. So what follows is manipulation often time; none can out beat them. I should know because my wife was a Police Officer chosen by UPSC Civil Service exam. When the system appeared corrupt, she raised vital issues to the Government. Instead of helping deal with issues of corruption, she was hounded…all her disciplinary actions against my subordinates were set aside. Senior officers made frequent inspections to her office and noted that she had become inefficient suddenly despite having received the DG of Police’s Meritorious Certificate in her first year of Service. When she chose to resign, the Govt didn’t respond within the stipulated 3 months time but on the fourth month, she was charge sheeted as Corrupt. When they chose to drop the charges later for lack of proof they worded their enquiry conclusion to sound that she was indeed corrupt but was being pardoned coz of her exemplary service. They also demanded 3 months of salary as training charges which she paid under protest to accept my resignation. When she sent a legal notice on this, the Govt returned the salary later. Believe me, Bureaucracy in India is a career in India and never an opportunity to serve people. It is constant manipulation that is the breadth of bureaucracy barring exceptions. It is also worth noting the author is Britain educated.