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Courage and Conviction
His book is the third by an Army Chief in recent times. His book, released last October, was followed soon after by India’s Military Conflicts and Diplomacy: An Inside View of Decision Making (not an autobiography) authored by General Ved Prakash Malik only last month. Last year, another former Army Chief, General Joginder Jaswant Singh, had authored his autobiography, A Soldier’s General. It is interesting and intriguing to note that no Navy or Air Force chief has written a book for some years now. The last book by a service chief other than an Army chief was Betrayal of the Defence Forces: An Inside Truth, 12 years ago in 2001, by former Navy Chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, who incidentally is the first and so far the only service chief to have been dismissed from service in India’s post-Independence history. General VK Singh, who has been at the centre of much controversy while both in service and post-retirement, has not, however, made many surprising revelations. The only such revelation is that the National Security Advisor had soon after the Mumbai November 2008 terror attacks inquired from various intelligence agencies in the country on whether India had any covert capability to hit back at Pakistan. Soon after, the Army had set up the Technical Services Division. However, no further details have been spelt out. The book is largely a memoir of his days in the Army and therefore quite naturally comprises interesting anecdotes, considering that the Indian Army is among the world’s busiest and most experienced. Of particular interest are his days in Sri Lanka when he as a young Major was part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force that fought the LTTE amidst much confusion and against considerable odds. General VK Singh has been quite forthright in critiquing General Krishnaswamy Sundarji, one of the Indian Army’s better-known Army chiefs in contemporary post-Independence history, on three counts. He criticises General Sundarji, then Western Army Commander, for proclaiming in the presence of a cautious Army Chief, General Arun Shridhar Vaidya, and the then Director-General Military Operations, Lt-General Somanna, to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in May 1984 that the Golden Temple could be cleared of terrorists by the Army in "no time". Three years later in 1987, General Sundarji, by then Army Chief, had announced with much bravado that the LTTE could be sorted out within a matter of weeks should the latter renege from the July 1987 Sri Lanka Accord. Then again, a year earlier (in 1986), General Sundarji had ordered some questionable shifting of troops during Exercise Brasstacks thereby precipitating a crisis with Pakistan. General VK Singh nevertheless touches on the misgivings and distrust between the Army and the civilian bureaucracy; the malaise of corruption; the sorry state of deficiencies in armament and equipment in the Army, while giving the sad example of how hundreds of soldiers lost their lives and limbs while laying defective mines during Operation Parakram starting from December 2001; the officer shortfall; the problems of leadership within the Army and the personality clashes and ego battles at the top to name a few. In all of these issues, General VK Singh has reaffirmed what scores of retired Indian defence officers have written and continue to write. He, of course, has given his side of view to the issues that propelled him into controversy such as his battle with the Army and the government over his year of birth and the fact that he had repeatedly offered to stick to demitting office in May 2012 and not see an extended period even if his year of birth was corrected to 1951; the alleged misuse of snooping equipment; the Tatra trucks scam and the much ado made about the movement of troops in the direction of Delhi during a routine military exercise. All in all, the book adds to the ongoing debate on military matters in the country.
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IT is not often that a
retired service chief writes a book. And when one does, it naturally
arouses curiosity especially if the service chief in question has been
a lightning rod for controversy. General Vijay Kumar Singh, who
retired as the Army Chief in May 2012, has recently published Courage
and Conviction, an autobiography, along with Kunal Verma.