Defence secy, Army vice-chief quizzed

A meeting of Parliament’s standing committee on defence on Wednesday was rocked by reports of elite para-commando units and mechanised infantry marching towards Delhi in January. However, defence secretary Shashi Kant Sharma and vice-chief of the Army, Lt Gen S K Singh, denied the reports as baseless.

While Sharma categorically said the reports were completely baseless, Singh said the Army often conducted such exercises, adding no particular protocol was mandated for Army units doing these.

On being asked by Shiromani Akali Dal member of Parliament, Naresh Gujral, if he had cut short his visit to Malaysia in January, Sharma told the committee he had returned early because of a court case, not because of the movement of Army troops during January 16-17.

 

However, Sharma’s and Singh’s replies left the members of the committee unconvinced. Opposition members argued not much action was taken because the Union government had openly denied the reports.

“The answers given by the defence secretary were not convincing, and the vice-chief of the Army talked about similar movement of units without protocol. All the members were perturbed and upset over the reports and were hoping for definite answers from both,” said sources privy to the development.

Senior members of the parliamentary committee also asked Sharma and Singh about the contents of the letter written by Army chief, Gen V K Singh, to the prime minister on the lack of essential equipment for the para commandos, air defence being nearly obsolete and the lack of critical ammunition for Army tanks.

“We don’t want to know how the letter written by the Army chief was leaked to the media. But the members are concerned about the contents of the letter and the lack of preparedness of the Army, which has emerged,” said the sources.

Since the defence secretary and the vice-chief of the Army didn’t have the details of the Army’s requirements at hand, the members asked them to appear before the committee again, on Monday.