The General's Age

Just a couple of days before he filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution, General V.K. Singh the COAS, is reported to have said that he had not thought of moving the court till that time. I think that was a totally misleading statement.General Singh must have been contemplating this move for a long time.He must have planned his move meticulously because he had earlier submitted a statutory appeal to the government. He is not a green horn that he did not know what fate his statutory appeal would meet.In ninety nine percent cases the statutory appeal filed by officers of the defence forces  personnel is rejected. Mostly the appeal is against the supersession of the officials. The G&A branch of the Ministry acknowledges the appeal and sends it to the concerned force i.e.the army or the navy or the air force for comments.The force in almost all cases re-iterates the position  and the Ministry generally agrees with that. In some cases the reference returns to the Ministry after the chief has seen it i.e. he has agreed that the supersession is justified. It is unlikely that the Chief  of the Army Staff did not know this fact. Then why did he submit a statutory appeal?              He submitted it because he knew that if he went to the Supreme Court without  first exhausting this channel, the Court would throw out the case without even bothering to go into its merits.
.People are criticizing A.K.Antony the Defence Minister that he has not evinced enough sensitivity to this important issue. Yes, Antony is like that.He just can not think for himself but is guided entirely by his personal staff. If this means disregarding the views of even the Defence Secretary, so be it. His earlier stint in the Union Cabinet as the Minister of Food and Civil Supplies was anything but remarkable.Officers of the Defence Ministry by now know very well what calibre their Minister has and also why he is there.
The question is what happens to the General if the Court chooses to dismisse his petition? Will the government sack him?This is the first time that an army general has thus embarrassed the government. So would he go unpunished? I don't think this government would punish him directly but he may be denied any post- retirement sinecure appointment. The situation will become more piquant if the General succeeds in his endeavour,i.e. he gets a favourable verdict from the Supreme Court in the next four months i.e. before the 31st May 2012 when he would superannuate.He will then insist that he be allowed to continue as the Chief till May2013. Then each day that he is in the office, he will be a thorny prick to the government in general and to the Defence Minister in particular.Will  the Minister be asked to tender his resignation then?Perhaps not, as Mr. Antony is the Defence Minister of the country not because the PM wants him to be the Defence Minister but because someone else more powerful than the PM wants him so. Who is bothered about the demoralisation of the armed forces that Antony's continuation in the office entails?.I wish Iwould prove wrong but I have a feeling that if there is an external aggression on the country today, its defences would crumble just as a bridge made by corrupt contractors and venal engineers crumbles.
If General Singh succeeds in his efforts and continues till 2013, the loser will be not only Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh who is likely to become the COAS (if General Singh  retires now i.e. in 2012), but also the Government of the country. There will be a complete trust deficit between the Government and the General for a period of one year. Officers who would have got their promotions as a consequence of General Singh's superannuation in 2012 will now have to wait for one more year. Some of them, including Lt. General Bikram Singh would even retire as the age at which the officers in the armed forces retire is linked to their rank--,the higher the rank, the farther the date of superannuation.So there will be quite a lot of heartburn if General Singh gets one more year as COAS.