Apropos your cover story (Officer, Gentleman and the Army Mess, Apr 9), why is the media wasting time alluding to the COAS’s letter leak? The person who leaked the army chief’s letter little realised that it’s part of his duties to write regularly to the MoD and government. As for defence budget cuts, I remember accompanying Gen K. Sundarji in 1986 to a meeting with then FM, N.D. Tiwari. Sure enough, within minutes into the meeting the latter said he had a shortfall and wanted to cut Rs 500 crore (about Rs 7,500 crore at current prices) from the defence budget. There was an uproar from the service chiefs but to no avail. Two days later, the amount was withdrawn from our budget. The chiefs then jointly wrote a letter to defence minister K.C. Pant highlighting the operational deficiencies—much like the present COAS—but nothing happened. After six months, a reply signed by a joint secy came saying the government was aware and necessary action would be taken. It is still being taken.
Lt Gen S.K. Bahri (retd), on e-mail
Both A.K. Antony and the COAS have faltered, the former by delaying decisions in his anxiety to say, ‘Look, my hands are clean’, and V.K. Singh by perversely resorting to a classic military strategy (the scorched earth policy) just because he was roundly defeated in the ‘Battle of the DoBs’.
Rajesh Ramachandra, Bangalore
There have been too many ‘Mr Cleans’ in this country for any good to come out of it—Rajiv Gandhi, Manmohan and now Antony. Not to forget the good general.
S.S. Nagaraj, Bangalore
It’s evident that there’s an institutional breakdown in the MoD which is the root cause of all this brouhaha. Antony or someone else must fix this at the earliest. The people demand an explanation from the upa for its lackadaisical policy on defence preparedness.
C. Koshy John, Pune
A revelation in all this is that after all these years we are still importing substandard trucks for defence use. What is the drdo doing? If they are not up to it, why not go to private players? Tatas, Ashok Leyland etc make trucks for the world, why not use their expertise?
T.N. Misra, on e-mail
It is the criminal silence of those in the highest positions that has put the nation in grave danger. A clean image counts for nothing, their spinelessness is costing us our peace.
Mani, Hyderabad
The Congress should shuffle Antony and Manmohan out of the pack. They are incompetent and, worse, are liable for neglect of their duties.
Bikash Chakravarty, Noida
Knowing fully well that a mere undertaking in writing by an individual cannot substitute for authenticity in a verifiable manner, the defence minister accepted a line fed to him by his staff to force Gen V.K. Singh to retire a year ahead of his rightful date. By this action, he has in one stroke undermined the very foundation of trust between his ministry and the armed forces.
Lt Col B.K. Nautiyal (retd), on e-mail
This dilly-dallying could lead to a national calamity, like the ignominious defeat at the hands of the Chinese in 1962.
Lt Col S.P. Karir (retd), on e-mail
At least the man spoke out. We should thank Gen V.K. Singh.
Siddharth Shankar Mishra, Sambalpur, Orissa
A main reason why India is ‘coup-proof’ is the sheer combined size of the state and reserve police forces, headed by ips officers loyal to the political establishment, for right as well as wrong reasons.
Mike Desai, Delhi
So many stories in your magazine on the army imbroglio, but will someone tell us the real cost of the trucks in question and the price at which the army bought them or was asked to buy them?
Kiran Voleti, Chennai
Our enemies must be laughing at the war between the army and the government.
Prof H.S. Dimple, Jagraon
The general has compromised integrity and honour to reach the top and now cries foul when there’s no space to crawl further.
Gilbert D’Souza, Bangalore
It’s unusual to expect the army to be clean when most public services in the country are corrupt. After all, like cancer, corruption metastasises to all organs of the country. The entire body needs to be subjected to chemotherapy.
Arun Kumar, London
Even today, if one considers the perks of army life—free housing and rations, subsidised canteen and travel facilities, long leave—it amounts to much more than most civilian jobs of a similar level. Perhaps corruption in the army is a reflection of what’s true of society in general—an urge to strike it rich.
Navin Malhotra, New Delhi
It’s humiliating for the nation that the army chief is joining the long list of those who are seen as disgraced.
K. Chidanand Kumar, Bangalore
The leaked letter of the army chief to the PM was made public by the media at a great cost to national security. The media should have exercised restraint, for national security stands far higher than circulation figures.
Mahesh Kumar, New Delhi
