The army chief, General Vijay Kumar Singh, has taken the government to the Supreme Court after it insisted that his date of birth in its relevant records was May 10, 1950 — and not May 10, 1951, as he has claimed, and in support of which he has extensive documentation. Accepting the later date would mean that the army chief will stay in office for almost a year more than was originally intended. Gen Singh, meanwhile, has said that he is not fighting for another year in office, but to save his “honour”, which he claims has been affected by the government’s stance since he is being portrayed in effect as a liar. Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma has been recalled from an official visit to Malaysia, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has held consultations with Defence Minister A K Antony and Law Minister Salman Khurshid.
On the evidence available, it is clear that Gen Singh was in fact born in 1951. The problem is that he is making an issue of it rather late in the day. On at least two previous occasions, he was willing to accept that his date of birth was 1950; so he must answer where his honour was then, when he testified to a falsehood — not once but twice. It has been said that he was coerced into accepting the 1950 date, which begs another question: how do you coerce an army commander? By denying him promotion for which he was qualified? If so, that was the time for Gen Singh to have gone to court, to assert the correct facts and to prove that he was not a liar. Soldiers are supposed to die for their honour; Gen Singh wasn’t even willing to risk a promotion; and having got it, he now seems to want to extract what he can in the name of an honour that he was not willing to stand up for earlier.
The best outcome now would be if the Supreme Court refuses to admit the general’s writ. That would avoid an embarrassing spat, both public and prolonged, between the government and the army chief — a spat in which the government will presumably seek to demonstrate that the general had accepted what he now says is a lie. That will do no good to the army, let alone to the larger government system. If it does become a court battle, therefore, the government would be well advised to ask the general to go on leave till the matter is settled, and if he refuses to do that, then to replace him. The worry about such an extreme and regrettable course of action would be the impact on the defence services as a whole, and the army in particular. But a properly managed communication exercise should be able to limit the damage. After all, the entire dispute over Gen Singh’s date of birth was being handled by Gen Singh’s seniors in the army; this is not therefore a civilian vs forces issue, and it should not be made into one.
