Defence Minister and PM's role in Army Chief birth year controversy

The UPA government is headed by Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister and he has AK Anthony as one of his senior colleagues holding Defence portfolio. Both are known to be low profile individuals of impeccable integrity and honesty. But, unfortunately, both have a record of laissez faire and being slow in decision-making, often doing much damage to competent governance. The current controversy regarding the birth date of the Army Chief Gen. VK Singh is a classic example of that drift and letting key decisions to drag on excessively, resulting in an unprecedented situation of confrontation between civilian leadership and the army establishment in which the army chief is forced to approach the apex court for justice to protect his honour and integrity in the face of an insensitive and obdurate government. The issue of the birth year of of Gen. VK Singh has been pending for many months but the Defence Minister and the Prime Minister in their strange and inexplicable wisdom clearly let the defence bureaucrats mess up things, instead of looking at the facts as produced by the army chief about his correct birth year(1951 and not 1950) sympathetically and dispassionately. Thus, the issue has been allowed to be debated in the media for a long time making a laughing stock of our official functioning. What could and should have been sorted out quietly appeared as a matter of needless conflict and controversy causing immense heart-burning in the disciplined, dedicated, patriotic defence class.

One wonders what is good of top leaders of the government enjoying a reputation of honesty and incorruptability if they are not prompt, decisive and sensitive to do the right thing at the right time.    

China offends India yet again denying visa to Arunachal IAF officer

The latest episode in a series of offensive and clearly unfriendly acts of China vis-a-vis India is the recent denial of a visa to an Indian Air Force Group Captain from Arunachal Pradesh who was travelling to Beijing as a member of an official Defence delegation. An initial press report said that the Indian govt had called off the Defence visit in protest against the Chinese replay of an earlier hostile attitude on the visa issue concerning Indian citizens from that NE State of the Indian Union. But, unfortunately, a fresh report stated that the Defence delegation's visit to China was still on, only with reduced number, excluding the senior IAF officer from Arunachal who was refused visa by the hosts!

However, being familiar with the utterly timid and cringing behaviour of the UPA govt, one was not surprised. To add insult to the injury, our External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and the National Security Adviser reportedly went out of their way to publicly agree with the Chinese ambassador in New Delhi that some elements unhappy with Sino-Indian "strategic alliance" were deliberately trying to highlight minor incidents in order to project bilateral relations in a bad light. Some Indian observers raised questions about the nature of the socalled "strategic" relations the Minister was talking about!

Judging from China's persistent arrogant and cynical anti-Indian stance, it seems that our neighbour is suffering from a chronic and compulsive itch to hurt and needle India. In the past, in pursuit of its aggressive and expansionist posture, claiming Arunachal Pradesh as its own territory, China refused to recognise the State inhabitants as Indian citizens and denied them visas to visit China even as official Indian delegates. After nation-wide protests and bilateral negotiations, China resorted to a mischievous practice of stapled visas. In an expression of solidarity with its "all-weather" friend-Pakistan, China followed similar practice of stapled visas even for J&K Indian citizens! In the face of a storm of indignation in the media and the govt, the Chinese relented, giving up the stapled visas.

Obviously, old habits die hard. Recently, China's anti-Indian neurosis resurfaced when they humiliated an Indian consular diplomat in a Chinese court room where he had gone to help two Indian employees of a trading company who had been kidnapped and tortured by some Chinese traders. Again, a national outrage against the Chinese high-handedness, forced the UPA govt to act. Beijing regretted with suitable reassurances. Yet, within a few days of that incident, we have a repeat of the visa denial. How could a major country like China which should be grateful to us for what we did to help them in the initial years of the Communist regime's birth to get international recognition and assumption of the UN Seccurity Council membership even ahead of us, be so obnoxiously and relentlessly hostile to us?

Army Chief's birth year- a controversy and PM's address to Science Congress

The unseemly controversy on the Indian Army Chief, Gen VK Singh's birth year does no credit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government for its lack of sensitivity, wisdom and finesse to settle the matter quietly, away from the media and public gaze. Unfortunately, it has allowed the issue to drag on for long, giving it an appearance of an unprecedented confrontation between the civilian dispensation and the army establishment. It is amazing that this has happened in the ministership of a politician like AK Anthony who is known to be gentle and fair-minded. Whatever it is, it is most disturbing and distressing as it involves a highy disciplined wing of the govt. that has an admirable record of professionalism and respect for the civilian authority as required in a democracy.

By accepting the incumbent topmost General's contention about his birth date that was confirmed and registered in the army administration records with relevant documents, the government could have protected the honour and dignity of the Chief of Army Staff's high office. By rejecting his insistent claim, it was implicitly disgracing him as a liar! Was it a right approach?



PM compares India with China at the Indian Science Congress
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Addressing the Indian Science Congress in Bhubaneshwar(Odissa), on January 3, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh bemoaned that China has "overtaken" India in the "world of science". It seemed a meaningless, needless acknowledgement because, in effect, he was condemning himself and his Congress government which has ruled this country for over five decades, for its unimpressive record of development in science and all other sectors of national activity, primarily because of poor budgetary allocations, misgovernance, bad planning and incompetence.

The historic humiliation of our brave soldiers on the heights of our Eastern border(now Arunachal Pradesh), in 1962 Chinese invasion, was a classic example of the utter neglect of our armed forces due to miserly defence allocations year after year that resulted in their fighting the well-equipped, well-prepared enemy in a wintry war with summer and ill-equipped gear! This sad phenomenon is still visible in several fields. Why merrily, casually refer to this huge lacuna when budget-makers and planners in the PM's team hardly bother? The PM himself cannot shirk his own responsibility as he has been holding this office for over seven years. They turn champions when it comes to allotting massive funds for populist programmes to attract votes of the poor, under the dictates of their supreme leader, Mrs Sonia Gandhi!