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Baffling waffling by Gen Singh over his birth date

In most promotion documents, he quoted 1950 as year of birth
Last Updated 03 February 2012, 20:08 IST

Army chief Gen V K Singh stood by May 10, 1950, as his date of birth at least on four occasions when it was time for promotion to a higher rank, indicating that he used that year of birth when it suited him, according to Army and Ministry of Defence documents.

Before and after every promotion -- from Brigadier to Chief of Army Staff (COAS) -- Gen Singh single-mindedly pursued effecting a change in his date of birth records with both the Adjutant General and Military Secretary’s branch. So much so that when it was time for to be promoted to Army Commander, the Ministry of Defence was so annoyed that it no uncertain terms questioned the “suitability” to promote him.

This is evident from a letter that the then MoD joint Secretary Bimal Julka wrote (on January 21, 2008) to the then Army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor, saying: “It is an oddity that the officer has continued to stand by a date of birth, which is not officially recognised and thereby revealing an attitude apparently questionable and not reflective of the qualities expected from an Army Commander. In view of this, the question of suitability of Lt Gen V K Singh as Army Commander calls for a revisit.”

When information about Julka’s letter to Gen Kapoor reached him, Lt Gen Singh sensed that the opportunity of being promoted to Army Commander could be in jeopardy and, therefore wrote to the then Military Secretary Lt Gen P R Gangadharan three days later saying, inter alia, “I am constrained to point out that your letter raises questions of my integrity and hence I would like to clarify a few issues” among which was his defence that it was not a change in his date of birth that he had sought but had simply requested a “reconcliation” of the records in the MS and AG branches.

The MS branch, however, wrote to the MoD on January 25, 2008, that “the officer did not have any mala fide intention in continuing to write his date of birth as May 10, 1951” and that he was “not blameworthy”.

Without any giving hint of taking on the MoD, Lt Gen Gingh said in a compromising letter that he has “total belief in the system” and “therefore, anything which is required to be done in the larger interests of the organisation may be undertaken by the HQ.”

At the same, he wrote out a note to the MS branch agreeing that “whatever decision taken in the organisational interest is acceptable to me.” With the MoD still not satisfied with his approach, in a subsequent missive to the MS branch, Lt Gen Singh said: “In view of the above constraint and in accordance with the discussion of the date, I will mention the date of birth as directed.”

It was at this juncture that Gen Kapoor advised him to go along with 1950 as his year of birth. Singh’s softening of stand led to his promotion as Army Commander and he was appointed GOC-in-C, Eastern Command, in March 2008.

Army sources said that while Gen Singh is “technically correct” on his year of birth (1951 -- all his educational testimonials and IMA records), he did not take an “honour and integrity call” everytime he mentioned 1950 as his birth year during every promotional opportunity.

Army and MoD documents indicate that after maintaining silence for over year, Lt Gen Singh took up the matter of his date of birth in December 2007 when it was time for promotion as Army Commander. In 2006, at the time of becoming Corps Commander he had stated 1950 as the year of birth.

Lt Gen Singh raised the issue of “reconciling” his date of birth again -- just before he was to be appointed Army chief. For over a year he wrote letters to the MS branch as well as to Gen Kapoor. But when it was clear that Gen Kapoor would retire on March 31, 2010, he was in the contention to be COAS. The bio-data that was sent to Army headquarter from Eastern Command stated his date of birth as May 19, 1950. Towards the end of November, 2009 he wrote to Gen Kapoor again closing the date of birth issue. In other words, he stuck to the 1950 year.

However, in his statutory complaint (SP), Gen Singh did not agree with this, leading the MoD to reject his SP and maintaining in its December 30, 2011 order that at “three stages i.e. at the time of his appointment as Corps Commander in 2006, Army Commander in 2008 and COAS in 2009-10, Army HQ confirmed his date of birth as May 10, 1950. The complainant had also accepted this as his date of birth in 2008 and 2009.”

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(Published 03 February 2012, 20:08 IST)

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