Antony desiccated the soul of Armed Forces

BY RSN SINGH

While Manmohan Singh’s personality in the psychological context of the Indians was a perfect veneer for pliability, criminal collusion and subversion of the spirit of Indian Constitution, A K Antony’s assiduously acquired ‘clean image’ came in handy for ‘powers that be’ to subvert and wreck the Indian Armed Forces from within. It may be reiterated here that Manmohan Singh in no sense was an elected Prime Minister and therefore his writ did not extend to picking up his own defence minister. The Prime Minister and the defence minister were picked up by the same authority and for same considerations, the least of all ‘integrity’. In fact, integrity and incorruptibility, financial and moral, were two biggest disqualifications in the previous regime.

If Manmohan Singh delivered to his political benefactor and mentor by way of CWG, Coal and 2G; Mr Antony did not lag behind. Never before in the history of India, the three services were targeted in the manner in which it was done during Mr Antony’s stewardship of the MoD. Never in independent India had the arms lobby become so brazen and criminal that it dared to manipulate ‘chain of succession’ of service chiefs.

The Indian Army was deliberately dragged into controversy by fabricating age related issue in respect of an Army Chief. Mr Antony vouched for the integrity of this Army Chief when he reported the Tatra scam to him. When the age issue came up in the Supreme Court, the government of which Mr Antony was a part, submitted an affidavit to the honourable bench, testifying the integrity of the concerned Army Chief. If the Army Chief was a man of integrity, then Mr Antony must answer as to why did he re-elicit the opinion of the Law Ministry, when it had categorically ruled in favour of the Army Chief. The common buzz is that it was done at the behest of someone, to whom Antony owed his office.

The next in the line was Indian Air Force. Once the VVIP Chopper scam was reported from a foreign soil, as is invariably the case, a former Air Chief was made the scapegoat for allegedly being recipient of kick-backs. The primary fault of this Air Chief was that as demanded, he had given his ‘opinion’ on the requisite operational parameters for procurement of VVIP Chopper. Even say, this Air Chief was guilty in the reckoning of Mr Antony for having allegedly received a small fraction of the kick-backs, the Defence Minister should have been worried as to who were the major recipients of public money. On this account both the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister were silent, because their puppeteer was in the grave shadow of doubt!

Now was the turn of Indian Navy. More than dozen accidents in a matter of months! It included two submarines. Many serving and retired Naval Officers asserted that the accidents were result of age related problems of the naval inventory. After every accident, the Naval Chief was put under-pressure. Finally, the powers that be succeeded. The Navy Chief resigned. The desired person was put in Office. Such was the force and osmosis of this new Naval Chief that all age related problems of the inventory have mended without intervention and there have been no accidents thereafter. Very poor script Mr Antony! You and your patron indeed think very poorly of the intelligence of Indians and integrity of people in uniform. Sadly there were some high ranking personnel in uniform to oblige the designs of your benefactors and the arms lobby. Subversion and sabotage by the arms lobby could not have acquired this new high, but for the indulgence of the dispensation.

It was during the decade of the UPA rule that the notorious ‘Chandigarh Gang’ surfaced as the mainstay of the international arms lobby. This gang is not necessarily in Chandigarh alone, but nevertheless is centered around it. It comprises some retired officers, politicians, journalists and prominent newspapers. One of these newspapers, particularly one journalist was on an overdrive during the ‘age-row’ of the then Army Chief. Another newspaper carried the ‘coup story’ and a full page advertisement on ‘Tatra’ in the same issue.

The very same ‘Chandigarh Gang’ has been at the forefront of hyping the Chinese threat and disparaging the DRDO, all at the behest of the arms lobby. The media houses that are a part of this lobby, in conformity with the imperatives of the international arms manufacturers, bombards the audiences from time time with ‘Chinese here, Chinese there and Chinese everywhere’ stories. Patriotic citizens should rather rely on the version of the Indian Army on these stories, then being misled by some of unscrupulous media houses.

Heading this ‘Chandigarh Gang’ was none other than the illustrious colleague of Mr Antony, who it is believed was desperate to see through a ‘succession plan’ in the Indian Army. It is also believed that it was he who prevailed on Mr Antony to re-obtain the opinion of the Law Ministry on the age issue of the said Army Chief.

Threat analysis should be a major concern and responsibility of a defence minister. Mr Antony allowed the MoD to be hijacked on this issue. He equally shares the blame for India’s sell out at Sharm-el-Sheikh. As a result of Indo-US nuclear deal, he is equally responsible for degrading India’s indigenous nuclear quest by slowing down the process of ‘fast breeder reactor’ and the ‘thorium route’. If there are three ends to the spectrum of warfare, i.e. sub-conventional, conventional, and nuclear, then the entire gamut should be the concern of a defence minister. If a prime minister is hysterical about only one end of this spectrum, then the motivations are not nationalistic. At the conventional level, Mr Antony did not allow one major arms acquisition even in the face of pernicious security imperatives on one pretext or the other. Indian security became a victim of the murderous internecine rivalry of the various arms lobbies.

At the sub-conventional or proxy war end of the spectrum, the defence minister allowed India’s bargaining position to be neutralized vis-à-vis Pakistan by allowing the ‘Chandigarh Gang’ to implicate Col Purohit for Malegaon and Samjhauta blasts at the behest of international lobbies. The specter of ‘Hindu terror’ was drummed up by the media of the same ‘Chandigarh Gang’. When the Army Court of Inquiry absolved this Officer, the least the defence minister should have done is to honourably reinstate him. This is bound to recoil as one of the biggest scams involving highest levels of the country.

An unpardonable act on the part of the defence minister was to acquiesce to the machinations by the arms lobby for inquiry on the Technical Support Division (TSD) to kill the political prospects of Gen VK Singh. The TSD was raised for acquiring operational and tactical intelligence in the wake of 26/11 attacks. Those who are in the know of the splendid achievements of TSD very much doubt the patriotism of the characters who questioned the functioning of the organization in order to pander anti-nationals in the Kashmir Valley and their Pakistani benefactors.

As a consequence of Mr Antony, such has been the acrimony and groupism in the higher ranks of the Indian Army that Officers take due precautions so as not to be seen in the company of any former Army Chief, who is considered to be the bête noire of the group that his current boss heads. Invitations to former Army Chiefs to seminars are given on this basis. Accordingly, Officers are also selective in responding to invitations for social events. The situation is no better in the Indian Navy.

Mr Antony you have desiccated the soul of the Indian Armed Forces.

(RSN Singh is a former military intelligence officer who later served in the Research & Analysis Wing. The author of two books: Asian Strategic and Military Perspective and Military Factor in Pakistan, he is also a Guest Blogger with Canary Trap. The opinions expressed by the author and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of Canary Trap or any employee thereof)

3 responses to “Antony desiccated the soul of Armed Forces”

  1. Tigerv virk Avatar
    Tigerv virk

    Sir, Where as most of the issues you touched are very relevant and your interpretation appears to be in line with what majority of people think. But the subject of VK Singh’s age row is as much controversial as it appeared to be and VK Singh can’t get away by just by your pointing out that it was deliberately brought in by Anthony. I do not agree with you.
    Friend VK Singh is also not a beyond shade of suspicion. You may not be aware that VK Singh should have known that there is very important Army rule as given in Regulation for Army(considered to be Bible for Indian Army rules and Regulation, earlier known as DSR -Defence services regulations)-Fraudulent Enrolment. And Classically VK Singh ‘s Case fell under the domain of this rule and surely SC must have indicated application of this rule when VK Singh Whimpered and decided to withdraw.He did not withdraw to project himself to be the M’cArthur of the Indian army. He knew he will face the music of a court martial. Anthony has nothing to do with this. There was no management of Chain of succession case here and it is the fertile imagination of VK Singh’s sympathisers at best. Vk Singh is no less crook, he tried every trick to extend his tenure in the ARMY HOUSE for one year. There is enough to prove that.
    From your write up it appears as if you are insunating that next Chief who was appointed was cohut and was involve with Arms Dealers.It is wrong. It is just that he happened to be from minority community and every idiot was hell bent to stop his succession.That included media,retired Army , Navy and Air Force idiots and people from VK Singh’s community, who were openly communal in their approach.
    Question of TSD was again an area where VK Singh thought he is running a private Army in a Banana republic, and let me assure you can’t defend him on this issue even legally.

    The case of Tatra and Lt Gen Tejinder Singh’s alleged offer of bribe, let me sum it up with one sentence” people offer bribe only to those who are likely to accept”. Nobody goes offering bribe to Modi. It is a weakness in the character of person in the receiving end. Here was retired defence officer against whom the case has been registered after VK Singh has become minister. The earlier same investigating Agency had given him the clean chit.

    Lastly , case of present Army Chief-VK Singh tried to block even his succession- just out of vengeance.
    Read the latest judgement of Sukhna Scam-which was just a figment of imagination of VKSingh.
    The entire tenure of VK Singh as COAS was spent in his effort to get extension and sorting out imaginary enemies.He was a Chief full of vengeance and that is all. Obviously he thought no end of himself initially and went after every one i.e Deepak Kapoor, Avdesh Parkash, PK Rath.. and whe he dnied to have his own way in his extension he fell out of Anthony’s so called favors. I wish he had devoted that time for the alma mater i.e ARMY to whom he owed so much.
    So let us not berate Anthony for every malaise in the system.
    Jai Hind

  2. Birind Avatar
    Birind

    Mr Virk remarks are irrelevant and digressive; the theme of the article is vast, open and, as such, thought provoking. The very broad canvas, the blogger has very aptly presented about the general malice, which aught to concern us gravelly; but opaque to Virk obviously, ‘trying dovetailing his own ineffectual myopic agenda.

  3. S.SuchindranathAiyer Avatar
    S.SuchindranathAiyer

    India is always about “who” rather than “what”. So, while Dr. Sen who slaves for the health of penniless tribals is sent to jail for sedition as a Maoist; Antony, the Nehru-Gandhi proxy gets away with treason! Pygmies like Nehru who have ruled India after the fashion of Aurangzeb and Ashoka in preference to the examples set by the royalty of Mysore and Travancore or Lord Curzon, Sir Mark Cubbon, Sir Thomas Munro and Lord Chetwode have wrought it so. So, the Indian view is, “We have given ourselves “Z” Class security, what are all these raped women, Ladakhis, Kashmiri Pundits, Tamil Brahmins, Manipuris, Tibetans, Arunachal citizens and families of beheaded soldiers complaining about?”