Manohar Parrikar meets Army Chief on affidavit row

Amid a raging row over filing of an affidavit by Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag in the Supreme Court, leveling allegations that former chief V.K. Singh, now minister of state for external affairs, had sought to victimise him, defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday met Gen. Suhag and sought all documents and details related to the issue.

Gen. Suhag made the allegations in an affidavit filed by him in his personal capacity while responding to a petition moved by Lt. Gen. Ravi Dastane (Retd) who had alleged “favouritism” during his selection as the Army Commander.

Army sources said that Gen. Suhag only “resubmitted” the affidavit he had filed before the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) as the matter has come before the Supreme Court. “The Army chief being a respondent in the case has put the same affidavit which he had put in the court in 2012. So it is more of a procedural matter, there is nothing new,” sources said.

In 2012, the then deputy chief of integrated defence staff, Lt. Gen. Ravi Dastane, had challenged the promotion of the then Lt. Gen. Dalbir Singh, who is the present Army Chief, as commander-in-chief of the Army’s Eastern Command.

Lt. Gen. Dastane said that Gen. Dalbir Singh is not eligible for Eastern command chief post because there was a disciplinary and vigilance ban on him by the then Army Chief, General V.K, Singh, over a botched-up operation in Assam’s Jorhat. But that General Bikram Singh — General V.K. Singh’s successor — had lifted the ban and Lt. Gen. Suhag’s promotion was cleared.

Before he took it to the AFT, Lt. Gen. Dastane’s statutory complaint was rejected by the Army headquarters and the defence ministry. “The AFT had rejected the claims of the complainant after which the complainant filed a case in the Supreme Court. When Suhag first filed the affidavit in 2012, neither was he the Army Chief and nor was Singh a minister,” the source said.

Gen. Suhag in his affidavit said: “I was sought to be victimised by the then COAS with the sole purpose of denying promotion to the appointment of Army Commander. False, baseless and imaginary allegations of lapses were levelled against me in the show cause notice (of May 19, 2012).” The case is expected to be taken up in the apex court shortly.