Politicisation of V.K. Singh enquiry will 'destroy' morale of armed forces: Bharat Verma

Verma also criticised Defence Minister A K Antony, saying he should have acted with more maturity, as the 'top secret' operation dealt with the security of the country

Defense analyst Captain (Retired.) Bharat Verma on Friday warned that politicising the enquiry ordered against former army chief General V K Singh would damage and destroy the morale of the armed forces, and compromise national security.

"If we are going to be such a small nation and going to fall down to such low standards of politicising issues like this, which concern the security of the nation, I am afraid it will totally deter the military from protecting this country for times to come," Verma said.

"I hope the Government understands this-that the politicisation of such issues of top secret military operations is not the kind of issue that should be politicised, because it can destroy the well being of the armed forces," he added.

All military intelligence operations are top secret operations. They use secret funds. There is no intelligence operation where you will be told how much fund was used for anything. If you start compromising military intelligence operations or intelligence bureau operations, then there will be a direct threat to the security of India.

In India there is already a huge internal turmoil going on. It is the military, which is keeping it physically together today. If there is a rivalry between two Generals, it is most unfortunate. Second thing is that this equipment that was bought, was bought by defence intelligence agencies and not by military intelligence.

The defence intelligence agencies are totally away from army headquarter, defence headquarter and naval headquarter. ...There is no proof that any chief was using to monitor anything in Delhi. I strongly believe that this an apolitical Indian Army, which continues to be apolitical except that there may be rivalries between Generals for various reasons which is most unfortunate.

Verma used the opportunity to criticise Defence Minister A K Antony, saying he should have acted with more maturity, as the 'top secret' operation dealt with the security of the country.

"Mr. Antony should be mature enough to not allow this to be blown out of proportions, because if he does that, nothing will be proved. The only thing will be that the security of the nation will be compromised because these are top-secret operations," Verma said.

Earlier, former army chief General (Rtd.) V K Singh shared the stage at a rally in Rewari, Haryana, with Gujarat Chief Minister and NDA's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

According to media reports, the "top secret" report was submitted on March 11 this year and army chief General Bikram Singh met Defence Minister A.K. Antony to brief him on the implications of the report.

Media reports has claimed that General V. K. Singh set up a special unit in the army which tried to topple the Jammu and Kashmir Government.

The report claims that a secret Board of Officers inquiry has recommended that the CBI look into the matter.

Media report also claims that the unit set up by General V K Singh called the Technical Services Division (TSD), a part of Military Intelligence, tried to block General Bikram Singh's promotion.

The reports said that the recommendation has been examined by the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Defence.

The report was prepared by Director General Military Operations Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia as part of a Board of Officers (BOO) formed by Gen. Bikram Singh to review the functioning of the top secret unit set up under his predecessor.