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Top Sikh officer in Indian Army
shunted out because
he was exposing corruption
WSN Bureau
 One
of the highest ranking Sikh army officers in the Indian Army, widely
celebrated for his sense of integrity and a no-nonsense attitude
towards anyone having to do anything with the gravy train that
freely moves in the Indian political system, has now been booted out
of his position and was made to suffer humiliation merely because he
came down heavily on the corruption cases. That too when he has only
nine months to retire.
One of the
inquiries that he ordered could also have involved the man who now
leads the Indian Army as its Chief of Staff, General Deepak Kapoor.
The dashing Lt
General H.S. Panag, Northern Command chief, was shunted out to the
Lucknow-based Central Command by the Defence Ministry even though it
is widely known that the Defence Minister A K Antony, himself
enjoying a reputation for his integrity and honesty, did not want to
sully his hands.
Those at the
helm of managing the affairs of the Indian Army have only splashed
some egg on their own faces. Panag was leading a frontal assault on
corruption in his command.
He had ordered
120 courts of inquiries (CoIs) after taking charge of the Northern
Command in January 2007. Many of the procurements into which Panag
had ordered the inquiries were cleared by Gen Deepak Kapoor, the
incumbent army chief.
Thus has the
Indian Army’s gurus managed to silence a whistle blower. Thus has a
great Sikh commander and leader been made to suffer for standing up
for principles.
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Purchases made by Indian Army chief to be
probed for graft
Kapurthala: India's defence ministry would probe all
irregularities in procuring the stores for the Army during the
tenure of Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor in Jammu and Kashmir
and take action against all those found guilty, minister of
state for defence M.M. Pallam Raju said here on Saturday. He was
on a visit to
Punjab.
He said the
ministry has taken a serious note of the Comptroller and
Auditor-General report censuring General Kapoor for making
frivolous purchases like bush-cutters and grass cutting machines
during his tenure as Northern command general officer in
commanding in chief, Raju told reporters here. |
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Sections of the
Indian media of course have been raising the issue but in muted
voices. The Defence establishment in
India works in
near secrecy and even though
India
has not seen military coups the defence domain is not a paragon of
transparency. Senior officers have been proven to be involved in
cases of moral turpitude, pouring tomato ketchup to claim fake
encounters and transporting tankers filled with water instead of
diesel or petrol.
All these are
cases well covered in the media, and of course, every child in
India
knows the silencer fitted on the Bofors gun by the ruling Congress.
 So you have a
choice to see the treatment being meted out to Lt Gen Panag as part
of Indian establishment’s general attitude to anyone who is seen as
a problem guy, who speaks a wee bit too much truth.
Lt Gen Panag
ordered an inquiry into purchase of tents, worth Rs 5 crore. These
were for troops who, surprisingly, had already left the deployment
position. Orders were cleared by Gen Deepak Kapoor, then Lt Gen
Panag’s predecessor. He had ruled out tendering and placed direct
orders. There was no emergency either. “Panag smelt a rat and
immediately ordered an inquiry. He’s been a marked man ever since,”
a leading Indian weekly magazine has now reported.
When Panag went
on his cleansing mission, too many felt the heat. But it was
difficult to shunt him out. After all, what did
India have
against this officer? But rats get together fast and can create a
lot of pressure. Last December, Kapoor told Panag that he was being
transferred. Panag approached defence minister A.K. Antony. His
questions were pointed, and Antony did not have the answers.
Why the posting
from an operational command to a non-operational command? And if
there was going to be one, site reasons. Panag’s wonderful army
record was another problem.
There is a
mandatory norm in
India that an
army commander must serve at least two years in an operational
command. Panag’s case would seem even more blatant since he had only
nine months to go before he retires.
Message is
clear: Do not try to fight corruption.
On top of it,
India has brought in Lt Gen P.C. Bharadwaj as a replacement of Panag.
That fits the pattern. The Siachen ration swindle happened during
Bharadwaj’s tenure as chief of the Leh-based 14 Corps. The J&K
police busted the scam, 11 FIRs exist and 35 arrests have taken
place already in that. Now, you can well imagine the fate of that
inquiry.
19
March 2008
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