Indian Army General Age Row

Discussion in 'Indian Army' started by politics, Feb 26, 2012.

  1. politics

    politics New Member

    Front line for defense from external attacks is formed by three wings of defense forces which are namely Indian Army , Indian Navy and Air Force. Indian Army is the second largest defence force all over the world with more than a million active army men. Head of the army in India is considered to be one of the most respected persons in the country, and his image is directly linked to the morale of the armed forces. Now a days army chief in India is in news for the reason other than defense, national pride and national security. The matter came into light when army chief requested the government to correct the records for his date of birth and change it to May 10, 1951 instead of 1950, which government refused to accept. Later on the army chief has to move to court, and he became the first army chief in history of India to go to court against the government. In his favor he has put the documents like high school mark sheet, earlier promotions, service record and classified service records, which were completely ignored by government in the process of decision making.

    The dispute came up from the fact that at the time of applying for NDA, V.K. Singh's Teacher wrote his date of birth as 1950, later on at the time of his admission to NDA his father mentioned his date of birth as 1951 and was also corrected in the documents of Indian military Academy, but on the basis of his application form it was registered as 1950 in the records of military secretary branch. Further proof to his claims come from his father’s service records, who also was serving in Indian Army at that time, when he informed the army about birth of V.K. Singh in 1951 at Pune army hospital. Although General Singh has constantly tried to get his date of birth corrected in the records since the time he joined army, his efforts were never being fruitful and thus he had to go to court for justice who has taken a very clear stand that principles of natural justice were not followed in this case.

    It’s not that this happened for the first time in the records of Indian Army, even once in an interview Mr. Jaswant Singh, Ex. Defense minister and Ex. Army personnel of India stated about the way how records are kept at national defense academy. He during his tenure as defense minister when visited NDA, at that time he got a chance to have a look at his own records, and there he noticed that his date of birth was mentioned as 1938, without mentioning any particular date of the year. The tightly shut doors of information from army in the name of national security and morale of armed forces have caused a lot of trouble to people inside and outside the army.

    With four more months to go for retirement general V.K. Singh is in a crucial battle with government for a dignified retirement from his spotless service in Army since 1970. Where some say that government is trying to save its face in the matter and they might go for a correction in General Singh’s date of birth and ask him to take a voluntary retirement one year prior to his age, the question rises is that when things are so crystal clear why couldn’t the government have take right steps in right time instead of making this matter controversial and forcing the general to take the route of court by making the controversy public.

    Age of Indian Army General: principle of natural Justice refused? What do you Proud Indians think ?
     


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