PMO hand in Tatra truck scandal, says V K Singh's new book

Former Army Chief Gen VK Singh, whose last days in office was marred by a legal battle with the government in the Supreme Court, has sought to drag the Prime Minister's Office over his age row and the Tatra truck scandal saying a senior bureaucrat there was "orchestrating" the issues.

He has claimed in his in his just-released autobiography 'Courage and convictions' that media appeared to be wanting him out of office after the second  hearing  in the age case that came as a "big blow".

But he continued as army chief after he met the then President Pratibha Patil who told him to "carry on with the work you are doing", the General says without taking any names of those he was attacking.

Referring to the controversy relating to the Tatra truck deal and says  the name of a PMO official was "cropping up regularly" and his relatives had been given plots in the BEML complex--the PSU assembling Tatra trucks in India.

"There was little doubt that a very senior bureaucrat in the PMO had been was orchestrating the entire age issue. Ever since I blocked the Tatra files, the name of the person had been cropping up regularly. "Not only was he involved directly with the PSUs where the direct evidence linking him to plots given to his family in the BEML complex, almost every move of the Government seemed to have originated from the same shadowy quarters," Gen Singh says.

The former Army Chief claimed that the senior bureaucrat was also dropping hints that the "age issue had been raked up by one of the former chiefs at the behest of the wife of a very important political personality."

He said he was advised by those in the know of the procurement business on the Tatra truck deal that "do not ask too many questions. The trail goes right up to a very high official in the PMO."

"There were murmurings that the relatives of a senior PMO bureaucrat had been given plots in the BEML housing society and the son of a top official at the Planning Commission had been living in the BEML guest rooms for more than a year," he has written.

Singh alleges that all PSUs including BEML function in a manner that denies logic.

"The Government wants them to show profits, which is impossible if they follow normal trade practices. Hence over the years, they have devised a methodology of fictitious pricing to enable them to do so. Nobody else in their right mind would accept these rates, so the armed forces are their bunnies through the bureaucrats," he said.

Gen Singh said the events in the Supreme Court after the second hearing had created a buzz that almost every newspaper said that the General has lost.

He claimed that a day before he was scheduled to leave for the UK on an official tour he met the former President.

"I hope you are not thinking of resigning," said the President pointing out the importance of the official visit starting the next day. If you do that, history will say that you were only interested in your age extension. You must carry on with the work which you are doing," he claims in his autobiography.

The former Army Chief claimed that the Supreme Court had said "nothing at all in its order".

"They had simply stated that the Government of India letter rejecting the Statutory Complaint was withdrawn. Though I knew this had happened, its actual import did not sink in for some time. The statutory complaint was alive, the Government of India had to answer it. They still had to fix my date of birth as per legal practices," he has claimed in his book.

Gen Singh claims that he had made this point in an earlier interview to a magazine but the next day "the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had cleared the name of my successor."

Gen Singh said soon after the second hearing on his way to Jaipur, he had thought of "putting in my papers but quickly brushed that thought aside. Right from the outset, I had known that I was up against a system that either expected me to conform to their accepted age-old practices or just look the other way."

"The age issue had been brought into play with certain objectives, but as I moved up the chain of command towards the very top, it had become the one and only weapon my adversaries had to neutralise me," he said.