New Delhi: Senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Tuesday accused the government of handling the sensitive issue
of Army Chief Gen VK Singh's age in an "insensitive" matter
saying the Prime Minister or the Defence Minister could have
sorted it out with him.
He felt the army chief need not not resign.
"I am amazed at his (Defence Minister AK Antony's)
incompetence and sheer folly of treating such a sensitive
matter in an insensitive manner," he said to a news agency.
Replying to questions on the army chief approaching the
Supreme Court seeking correction of his date of birth on the
army records, the former Defence Minister said Gen Singh was
not not seeking extension of service for the prize of office
but only rectification of records.
"Could the Defence Minister or the Prime Minister not
not stopped or asked the army chief .....walked to his office
and sort out this elementary matter of sorting government
records," he said.
Asked if Gen Singh should resign now now that he has
approached the court, Jaswant Singh said "why should he. Is
that what bureaucracy wants him to do?"
Maintaining that the civilian government's approach to
the army chief's age issue as "extremely distasteful", he said
the army cannot be treated in this fashion as there was such a
disconnect between the civilian government and the military.
Jaswant Singh said just because the army chief sought
correction of the "wrong" record the government cannot treat
it as "mutinous behaviour".
He said he was not not supporting the army chief as an
individual but as an institution. "I am supporting the
institution of Chief of Army Staff, not not as a person.
Don't blunt the sword arm of the country," he said.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 18:52