M A I N   N E W S

Govt calls off Army Chief’s visit to Israel
Ajay Banerjee/TNS

New Delhi, February 28
In keeping with its neutral stance on Israel-Iran tensions, India has asked its Army Chief General VK Singh not to travel to Tel Aviv on a scheduled official visit next month.

Officially, the Defence Ministry has cited "critical situation prevailing in the Middle-East" as the reason behind the move.

General VK Singh was scheduled to visit the country from March 16 to 18. The Chief has now been advised to travel there later this year. It means his successor - scheduled to be take over the charge on June 1 this year - will go to Tel Aviv to discuss cooperation.

Israel is India’s second largest defence equipment supplier after Russia while Iran caters to around 10 per cent of India growing crude oil needs.

Senior officials have not ruled out the latest flare-up between Israel and Iran over embassy blasts as one of the reasons for not sending the Army Chief to Tel Aviv. Israel had asked India to impose a trade embargo on Iran and implement other sanctions.

By not sending its Army Chief to Israel, New Delhi probably wants to show Iran that it was adopting a neutral stance at this juncture even as global pressure was mounting against Tehran.

After the February 13 Delhi car-bomb attack, in which an Israeli woman diplomat was injured, India has done the proverbial tightrope walk to manage its two strategic partners. It has warded off high-pitched suggestions from Israel that Iran had a hand in the attack. Home Minister P Chidambaram has made it clear that there was no evidence to link the attack to any specific country. Sources maintained that an official visit to Israel, at this stage, could send wrong signals to Iran.

All military visits are planned and cleared at least a year in advance. So, this sudden move by the government has raised many brows.

Sources said there could be other reasons for not sending Singh to Israel. One of them could be a kind of ‘trust deficit’, a fallout of the confrontation between the government and the Army chief over his age. The Ministry of Defence, however, has denied this.

General VK Singh is the first serving Army Chief to drag the government to the Supreme Court.

Retirement note to Gen

The Military Secretary branch of the Army has issued a Retirement Warning Letter (RWL) to Army Chief General VK Singh. An RWL is routinely given to officers around 10-11 months before their due date of retirement.

It had not been issued to Singh as the General had filed pleas to get his date of birth corrected. The Military Secretary branch was waiting for SC documents in the case and has now dispatched the letter that will facilitate the calculation of the General’s pension and clearance of other dues.

In November last year, the Defence Ministry had asked the Military Secretary branch to issue the letter. The branch had expressed its inability saying the matter was sub-judice. The Army Chief will retire on May 31.