—4 Indian Generals set to get show-cause over corruption charges
—Army Chief Gen. Kapoor skirmishing hard to win stealthy war with Lt.Gen. V. K Singh
—2 top Generals of Indian Army go all out to engage Corp Commanders in outrageous tug of war
From Ajay Mehta and Christina Palmer
New Delhi—The Generals of Indian Army could be described as great warriors in the battlefield but they are now proving that they are even more combatant during the peacetime, specially when it comes to show muscles to each other in egoistic affairs and that is what is going on in the Indian Army at the moment with Army Chief General Deepak Kumar and Commander Eastern Command ( know as Fort Williams boss) Lt. general V.K Singh locking horns and making all efforts to get supports of maximum Corps Commanders, Formation Commanders and Principal Staff Officers and making outrageous efforts to bring them to their respective groups as the Kapoo-Singh row over the military lands scams continues to soar, reveal the findings of The Daily Mail.
These findings indicate that four very senior Generals of Indian Army including Military Secretary Lt. Gen. Avdesh Prakash and former 33 Corps head Lt. Gen. P.K. Rath are set to be served show-cause notices, asking why action should not be taken against them over the Sukna land scam case.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that this action, likely in the next few days, ahead of Army Day on January 15, follows certain “directions” issued by Army Chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor late on Monday evening. But Lt. Gen. Prakash, who is due to retire on January 31, could get up to 30 days (as per Army provisions) to reply to the show-cause notice, which means he may still retire as Military Secretary. Also, the show-cause notice in Lt. Gen. Prakash’s case is likely to state why administrative action (ranging from a warning to dismissal from service) should not be taken while, on the other hand, disciplinary action (that includes a possible court-martial) could be contemplated against Lt. Gen. Rath., meaning that Lt. Gen. Prakash could escape a court martial while Lt. Gen. Rath could face one.
The other two officers, Commander of 11 Corps Lt. Gen. Ramesh Halgali and Maj. Gen. P. Sen could also face administrative action.
A court of inquiry was ordered earlier by Commander Eastern Command Lt. General V.K Singh into the grant of a no-objection certificate by the Army authorities for construction on non-Army land adjoining the Sukna military camp in the Darjeeling region of West Bengal in February last year.
Military Secretary Lt. Gen. Avdesh Prakash had served in the Eastern sector earlier and there were allegations against him of favouring a businessman who wanted to construct an educational institution in land adjoining the Army station at Sukna. Lt. Gen. Rath was reportedly heading the 33 Corps at Sukna when the NoC was given by the Army.
The Court of Inquiry (CoI) report had been submitted by the Army’s Eastern Command to Army Headquarters in New Delhi, following which the report was examined by the Army’s Adjutant-General branch and JAG branch and a strict disciplinary action against the Generals was ordered with General Kapoor biding to get it transformed into administrative action. General Kapoor had been trying hard to convince Minister Antony that General Singh’s CoI recommendations were biased as Singh was holding personall grievances against him since the time Singh was not nominated as Vice Chief of the Army Staff but the minister regretted to intervene.
The Daily Mail’s findings reveal that the difference between the Indian army Chief General Kapoor and the Chief of Army’s Eastern Command, Lt. General V.K Singh, who is the senior-most Lieutenant General, were emerging for the past few months after the inquiries into a military land scam began. These finding indicate that this tension between the 2 top Generals of Indian army reached to the extreme when a Court of Inquiry, convened by the Eastern Army Commander who is based in Fort William in Calcutta, started the proceedings and recommended for the sacking of Army Chief, General Kapoor’s Principal Staff Officer (PSO) and Military Secretary, Lt Gen. Avadhesh Prakash. According to the sources in the in the Indian army, the Army Chief General Kapoor has made an abortive attempt to defend his top confidant. Our sources in the Ministry of Defence informed that General Kapoor has officially informed the Defence Minister A.K. Antony that Lt Gen. V.K Singh was taking an over enthusiastic and “undue interest” in the land scam case of North Bengal.
The Daily Mail’s investigations further indicate that the Court of Inquiry, presided over by Commander 4 Corps, based at Tezpur-based, Lt Gen. K.T. Parnaik, had forwarded its findings to Lt Gen. Singh. Based on the findings and on consultations with the Judge Advocate General (JAG) in his command, the eastern army commander recommended the “termination of services” of Lt Gen. Prakash because of his alleged involvement in a land scam case. The army sources say that this situation has paralyzed the entire military establishment as the scuffle between the 2 bigwigs of the Indian Army is rising day by day with Army Chief trying to show his muscles to Commander Eastern Command and resisting JAG branch’s recommendations while Commander Eastern Command sticking to the set rules and procedures.
The Daily Mail’s finding further reveal that after getting a cold shoulder from Defence Minister Antony , the Indian Army Chief, the past few days, held detailed discussions with the Adjutant-General over the matter to decide the course of action, exploring more ways to save his top aides, specially Lt. General Prakash, seeking administrative action rather than disciplinary action while General Singh insisting on disciplinary action, meaning termination of services.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that since December 24th, 2009, General Kapoor and General Singh launched separate campaign to form their separate groups in the military establishment with both trying to obtain from all the 7 seven command structures. It is learnt that General Kaoor and General Singh have launched special campaign to gain maximum support from amongst the Corps Commanders, Formation Commanders and Principal Staff Officers to convince them about their respective view points over the issue of disciplinary action and administrative action four the four disgraced Generals.
These findings indicate that in case a disciplinary action is taken, General Prakash, the Military Secretary, is likely to be replaced by a General, considered to be very close to General Singh. The Military Secretary is the officer tasked with the management of the Army officer cadre, including a predominant say on postings, promotions and deputations of officers which means, it would be 2ns victory of General V.K Singh in the battle with General Kapoor.
Brigadier (Rtd) M.K Singh, a former Indian army officer and is one way or the other, associated to the state of affairs, upon contacting by The Daily Mail said that it was all indicative of a serious tug of war between Army Headquarters and the Eastern Command, a fully operational authority whose area of responsibility covers the maximum length of international borders. According to Brigadier Singh, after the report of the Court of Inquiry (CoI) was hand-delivered from Calcutta at 9.30 on the morning of December 23, Wednesday, Army Chief Kapoor was summoned for an unscheduled meeting by the Defence Minister in his office and he discussed the matter with General Kapoor for about two hours but general Kapoor remained stick to defend ‘his’ men and the meeting ended with no positive outcome.
Brigadier Singh says that there was cold war going on between general Kaporr and the Fort William boss Lt. General V.K Singh for the past few months over some personal issues. He says that since Gen. Singh had convened a Court of Inquiry that indicted Lt Gen. Prakash in the land case. Gen. Kapoor felt that the Eastern Commander did not have the authority to summon the army chief’s principal staff officer and he did so with ill-intentions. He further said that Lt Gen. V.K. Singh, whose age was caught in a discrepancy, was bypassed earlier for the post of Vice-Chief of the Army staff and somehow blamed General Kapoor for it and that is perhaps from where the row between the two began.
