New Delhi, September 5
Unable to see a future for himself in the Army, Lt-Gen Arjun Ray, General Officer Commanding of the force’s Leh-based 14 Corps, has sought premature retirement.
According to sources at Army Headquarters, Lt-Gen Ray, who has had a high profile career and had also closely coordinated media coverage of the Kargil war, put in his papers for being relieved from the force about 10 days ago. The AHQ is still to take a final decision on his request.
Lt-Gen Ray, who has put in more than 35 years of service, in his request for being relieved from the Army has apparently not given any specific reasons, but according to sources in the present scenario he did not see himself going any further in the Army hierarchy and sought premature retirement.
There were also reports that Lt-Gen Ray had landed himself with a prestigious United Nations assignment and as a result had sought retirement from the Army. He is expected to take up the UN assignment only after getting relieved, which could still take some time as the approval from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would also have to be sought.
Lt-Gen Ray came into the limelight during the Kargil war that India fought with Pakistan in 1999 as he controlled the Army Liaison Cell (ALC) which forms part of the Army’s psychological operations wing. He was responsible for dissemination of information to the media and was also closely coordinating the daily briefings being held in Delhi along with the official spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs.
He has held some of the important posts in the recent past including Commanding the Mechanised Division in Hisar. He was the BGS of the 15 Corps and then moved to College of Combat before heading the Army Training Command. From Artrac he took over as the General Officer Commanding of the Leh-based 14 Corps.
Incidentally, the move by Lt-Gen Ray is also an indicator that there could be a long delay in creating the post of Chief of Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA). The Task Force set up to study the security environment of the country had suggested that a separate post of Chief of DIA be created.
The MoD was of the opinion that an officer of the level of a Lt-General or equivalent be made the DIA chief. With his background Lt-Gen Ray was tipped to take over as Chief of the DIA.
Sources say the MoD had for now put the issue on the backburner and it was one of the reasons for Lt-Gen Ray seeking retirement. Senior MoD officials feel the issue of creating the post of Chief of DIA was too complex an issue and it would take a lot of debate and working before the post could be created.
This specially as the government was still not sure what exactly would be the functions of the DIA chief and with who all would he coordinate. Earlier there were reports that the Director of Intelligence Bureau and the Director RAW would be placed under the DIA chief.
But sources point out that this was technically not possible as both, Director IB and Director RAW, were officers of the secretary level in the Government of India and were much senior to an officer of the level of Lt-Gen in the Army. The Government could not have taken such a step as it would have created a big protocol problem besides other things, sources said.
