Check on Sareen's antecedents
A military intelligence goof-up
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 5 — The office of the Director-General of Military Intelligence (DGMI) had forwarded the name of Air Chief Marshal S.K. Sareen to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (PM Security) for the check on his antecedents in connection with the Commanders’ Conference beginning October 26 here.

An independent inquiry conducted by the Defence Ministry has established that the name of Air Chief Marshal Sareen was forwarded, along with the names of some other senior officers for obtaining security clearance for "special security passes" for the Commanders’ Conference to be held in the high security South Block, in a letter written from the office of DGMI. The first name on the list forwarded to DCP(PM Security) was that of Air Chief Marshal S.K. Sareen.

Sources in the Defence Ministry disclosed that the letter was written by an officer of MI-9, which was the office of DGMI, on August 8, 1998, and had the approval of the Vice-Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Chandrashekhar. The letter written by the office of the DGMI was a follow up to an earlier letter written by the office of Joint Secretary (Military), who represents the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, who incidentally is Air Chief Marshal S.K. Sareen himself.

According to sources, the government was also now upset with the Air Chief Marshal for the manner in which attempts had been made to publicise the issue. The manner in which he had made attempts to involve the Chiefs of the other two wings of the Armed Forces to project that deliberate attempts had been made by the bureaucracy to run down the office of the chiefs had also apparently greatly angered the government.

The government has already ordered an inquiry into the goof-up. The inquiry is being conducted by Additional Secretary (Home) R.D. Kapoor.

Intriguingly, not only did the office of DGMI realise that the name heading the list was that of Air Chief Marshal Sareen, but even the office of DCP(PM Security) did not realise the importance of the man and forwarded the name to the intelligence unit of Uttar Pradesh for the checking of his antecedents.

Sources said the MI-9 officer who had sent the letter bearing No. A/33015/MI-9, gave details like his present address, which was the Air House located on Akbar Road in New Delhi and his permanent address which was of Dehradun. Subsequently, DCP (PM, Security) informed the Uttar Pradesh state intelligence unit to check on the address of Dehradun.

The inquiry conducted by a lady Sub-inspector of the Uttar Pradesh police on September 28, which was blamed on the PMO, had sent shock waves in defence circles.

Sources disclosed that it was the joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, of which Air Chief Marshal Sareen is the Chairman, was the nodal agency for organising the Combined Commanders’ Conference.

The Chief of Staff Committee office was represented by Rear Admiral Sanjiv Kapoor who was also the Joint Secretary (Military). On behalf of Rear Admiral Kapoor, from his office, Group Captain J. Narohna wrote to the DCP, PM’s security on July 23 (letter No. DMW/35119/CCC), requesting the DCP to obtain clearance for officers attending the Prime Minister’s address during the conference so that special security passes could be issued.

The letter also said that the Service Headquarters and other agencies would forward the details of officers attending the PM’s address and the nominal role of personnel employed for various arrangements so that passes could be made for them.

This letter further said that Service HQ and other agencies would forward the details to MI-9 who would then send it to DCP (PM Security) for necessary action.

It was after that, MI-9 sent the letter to PM’s security which had Air Chief Marshal Sareen’s name right on the top.

The subsequent inquiry at the Air Chief’s private house in Dehradun, where his father lives, brought protests from politicians and bureaucrats. According to reports, the three Service Chiefs were even trying to meet the Prime Minister to express their displeasure on the issue.

Retired defence officers ask PM to apologise
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 5 — An apology by the Prime Minister and an enquiry by a serving Judge of the Supreme Court have been demanded by several senior retired defence personnel residing in the city and adjoining areas to express their resentment against the verification into the antecedents of Air Chief Marshal S K Sareen, chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.

Addressing a Press conference here today, Air Marshal Randhir Singh, Air Marshal R.S. Bedi, Lt-Gen K.S. Gill, Maj-Gen Rajinder Nath, Maj-Gen A.S. Gill and other senior officers said the morale of the defence forces had been dealt a severe blow by this action. "What would have been the outcome if the police official(in this case a sub inspector) had in his or her wisdom or perception given an unfavourable report", they questioned.

This kind of episode gave the impression that senior defence officers in the country were under police surveillance. The Prime Minister should realise that it is a very serious matter. Such checks, they asserted , were never carried out in any enlightened democracy.

It was "scandalous" that a lowly placed police functionaries are sent to verify the antecedents of senior officers who between them were responsible for the security of the nation, commanded lakhs of troops and managed resources worth billions. The incident, according to them, was a deep rooted conspiracy to sow the seeds of mistrust in the minds of the politicians by bureaucrats without taking into account the morale of troops laying down their lives fighting insurgency and terrorism in various parts of the country.

The gathering was of the view that the Supreme Commander, the President, should also take up the matter with the government and ensure that the persons responsible for the lapse, like so many lapses in the past, did not go scotfree.

At the outset, Air Marshal Singh declared that the forces were not going to take over the country as was being projected by people with vested interests. The forces had always displayed courage and valour but had been given short shrift by the powers that be.

It was in view of such episodes that they have been demanding that the Ministry of Defence(MoD) should be staffed by uniformed officers who knew the working of the forces. Civilians with little knowledge of defence matters were misleading the government, they added.