News

Sunday 27 May 2012

Army Chief General 's show cause notice creates uncertainity over officers' elevation

cleanmediatoday.blogspot.com

Army Chief General VK Singh's show cause notice creates uncertainity over officers' elevation

Clean Media Correspondent

New Delhi, May 27 (CMC) The defence ministry on Saturday refused to be drawn into a slanging match with General V. K. Singh despite finding many aspects of the outgoing Army chief's outburst objectionable.
Gen. Singh has slammed the government and a section of the bureaucracy for pursuing an agenda to tarnish his image.

Though Gen. Singh, who retires on May 31, is leaving behind a string of controversies, the immediate headache for the defence ministry is the appointment of two Army commanders that has come under a cloud because of the Army chief's move to place a "discipline and vigilance (DV) ban" on Dimapur-based 3 Corps commander Lt. Gen. Dalbir Suhag.

The top posts in two key Army commands - eastern and western - are falling vacant on May 31.

While western Army commander Lt. Gen. Shankar Ghosh is retiring next week, eastern Army commander Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh will take over as the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS) after General Singh retires.

Lt. Gen. Suhag, who was next in line to become the Army chief after two years, was tipped to become the eastern Army commander replacing Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh.
Military secretary Lt. Gen. Sanjiv Chachra was slated to become the western Army commander.
But the two appointments have now run into uncertainty with Gen. V. K. Singh's move to issue a showcause notice to Lt. Gen. Suhag. The defence ministry will now go into the details of the case and investigate the charges made against Lt. Gen. Suhag by the Army chief in the showcause notice.
Even if Lt. Gen. Suhag is cleared of the charges, the entire process will take some time.

In the event of Lt. Gen. Suhag missing the promotion bus, the delay in announcement of new Army commanders could also mean curtains for Lt. Gen. Chachra's elevation as he has just two years of service left. The defence ministry will then be forced to consider the names of new officers.
This will open the door for Adjutant General, Lt. Gen. J. P. Nehra, and 1 Corps commander Ashok Singh to become Army commanders.

Cong flak for Singh
Praveen Davar, AICC secretary and chairman of the party's exservicemen cell, slammed General Singh, alleging that he was playing havoc with the system on the eve of his retirement and accused him of losing mental balance.

No comments:

Post a Comment