VEEKAY’S NEWSLETTER -2016
Dear Friends,
As the year draws to a close, it is
time - once again- to connect with friends, acquaintances and loved ones. Kumud
tells me that my memory is failing, but I think this should be my 11th
– or is the 10th – Newsletter. Towards the end of her life, my
mother, who passed way recently at the ripe old age of 95, had been stricken by
Alzheimer’s, so I will not be surprised if I follow suit, after 20-25 years.
But I take heart from the fact that there were many who had excellent memories,
even when they were touching 100. A few that I can recall were stalwarts like
Tery Barreto, Sam Manekshaw, SK Sinha and several others.
The most notable event of the year
was the demonetisation of notes of Rs 500 and 1000 announced by the Prime
Minster on 8th November. I saw it on TV but was not very perturbed, since
it was announced that one could exchange old notes or withdraw new notes from
the ATM from 10th November onwards, right up to 30th
December. I was busy on the 10th so it was only on the 11th
that I thought of going to the ATM. But the long queue that I saw was something
of a shock. In the event, it was only on the 13th that I was able to
withdraw Rs. 2000 from the ATM in DSOI. After this, the ATM was never loaded
with cash and I had to make several visits to the bank during the next few days
to get some of my own money. Obviously, the Government had not foreseen the
magnitude of the problem or the hardships that common people have been facing
since then.
Even serving soldiers and
pensioners, especially the widows, are finding it difficult to get their dues. I
wonder why nobody has thought the system of Field
Cashiers that is unique to the military. In field areas, the Field Cashiers are
responsible for paying the soldier his salary and other allowances, if he so
desires. Even if he has a bank account, he can draw his salary as well as an
advance from the Field Cashier. Old timers will recall the thrill that we felt
when the Field Cashier visited the unit or formation HQ to disburse money. Can
we not use the Field Cashiers to alleviate the problems being faced by our
pensioners? If we can have mobile canteens visiting small stations to cater for
the needs of ex-servicemen, what is the problem in having a similar system for
Field Cashiers? Even if they visit every town once or twice a month, it will be
a boon for ex-servicemen. The Army is called out to assist the civil
administration in almost everything. Why not for disbursing pensions? This will
be nothing but another facet of Aid to Civil Power, which is part of our
duties.
The
court cases concerning my book India’s External Intelligence – Secrets of the Research
& Analysis Wing (RAW) are still on, as well
as some that I had filed against authors and publishers of similar books written
by others. In one case concerning two books – “Inside RAW: The Story of India’s Secret Service” by Asoka Raina and
“The Kaoboys of R&AW – Down Memory
Lane” by B. Raman – the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate passed an order
summoning them, expressing an opinion that the material contained in these two
books is far more explicit that the one contained in my book. As expected, they
went in appeal to the High Court, which set aside the order, on the grounds
that Section 13(3) of the Official Secrets Act stipulates that no court can
take cognizance of any offence under the Act unless the complaint comes from
the Government. The same happened with my complaint regarding corruption in
RAW. After several years, the CBI Special Judge opined that he was helpless, since
previous sanction of the Government was not taken! Mercifully, my visits to the
courts this year have reduced, from 40 to 50 in yesteryears to just 20 this
year.
With
the publication of the History of the Corps of Signals, Volume III last year, I thought
that I would now get some time to devote to another book that I have been
working on for about three years now. It is being written in fits and starts –
for the last three months or so, I have not had time to turn to it. Hopefully,
I will during the next couple of months. Of course, my involvement with the
Corps History has not ended. I still visit the Corps History Cell in Signals Enclave
about once week or so. After all, I spent almost 15 years in that room, working
on Volume II and then Volume III. Maj Gen PK Mullick who now wears the mantle
of the Corps Historian, is working on Volume IV that will cover the period
after 1972. I am sure he will do a fabulous job, as always.
This year, I had a wonderful holiday
in Kerala, which I had not visited earlier. Sukesh Jain offered to take me
along with his brother-in-law Sharad –
his sister was going abroad at that time – and Sharad’s son, daughter-in-law
and grandchild. It was a nine day trip during which we visited Kochi, Allepey
and Kumarakom. Sharad had a Club Mahindra membership so we stayed at Hotel
Ramada in Allepey and the Mahindra resort in Kumarakom. We had a wonderful time,
taking in all the sights and doing a lot of boating in the backwaters. We also
tried the traditional oil massage. The last two days were spent in the Engineers
Mess at Kochi, from where we made a trip to the Athirapalli falls. Of course,
RK Nair was the friend, philosopher and guide for the tour. He had planned the
whole trip, booked the cab for us, and received us when we arrived. As some of
you may recall, Sukesh, RK and I share another bond – we had been driving
together as part of the Signals team in the Himalayan Rally in the early
eighties.
The second holiday of the year was
in June, along with Kumud, Mauravi and her two daughters, Mriggya and
Eshaana. Also accompanying us was my
son’s daughter, Khushi, and Bhumika, who is the daughter of Kumud’s nephew
Ajay. So there were three adults and four girls, aged between 14 and 11. Mriggya
had gone to Camp Himalayan in Himachal on a school trip last year and so we
decided to go there. Unlike our previous holidays when we went in our own car,
this time we went by bus. After an overnight journey from Delhi, the Volvo
dropped us on the highway short of Manali, from where we were picked by a SUV
sent from the Camp, which is run by Mr Naveen Bahri and his wife, along with a
veteran, Air Marshal PK Bhangu. We stayed in a cottage with bunk beds and the
kids had a rollicking time, indulging in activities such as river crossing, rappelling
and trekking.
We had planned to stay for four days
but on the last day, we attended a session of Psycho-Neorobics, of which a
three-day workshop was being conducted by Dr BK Chandrasekhar. He is an Air
Force veteran who now specialises in this new discipline. He is an MSc in
psycho-neorobics and a PhD in alternative medicine. He has founded an organisation
known as SIGFA and conducts workshops all over the country. Neorobics is a
little known science that is related to the power of the mind to control the
body, awakening the seven chakras. By common consent of the adults, we decided
to extend our stay by two days, and attend the workshop. It was an interesting
experience and we came away feeling we had learnt something new. We were given
a lot of literature and CDs with videos of the various exercises.
Unfortunately, after a few days, almost all of us gave it up – it consumed too
much time and the benefits were not as visible as what had been claimed. But
the children enjoyed the extended stay, and that is all that mattered.
This year has been fruitful on the
financial front, as it has been for most veterans. As I had mentioned last
year, about five years ago 53 major generals including SPS Vains had filed a
case in the AFT at Chandigarh to remove the anomalies in their pay with those
who retired after 2006. The AFT ruled in their favour but the Govt., as usual,
went in appeal to the Supreme Court, which dismissed the appeal. Everyone got a
large sum of money as arrears, except me – my name was there but the IC Number,
Rank and address was missing from the letter issued by the MOD, Department of
Ex-Servicemen Welfare (DESW). After a lot of running around, a corrigendum was
issued and I got the arrears this year. Another bonanza came after my plea for
broad banding of disability pension was accepted by the AFT. Finally, the
arrears of OROP also came through as well those from the 7th CPC. Of
course, I have spent some of this windfall on the purchase of a new car. We
zeroed in on the Nissan Terrano and decided to go in for a petrol version, since
diesel vehicles are going to be banned soon. I was surprised to learn that the
petrol version of the car is not in the CSD list, so I had to buy it from the
market. Because of the problems associated with my back – lumbar canal stenosis
with three prolapsed discs - the only vehicle that suits me is the Toyota Innova.
My present Innova is now almost nine years old, but I have to get rid of it
soon and go in for a car that runs on petrol. Thankfully, a petrol version is
now available. Perhaps I will buy it next year, again from the market.
Last year, the whole family had
assembled in our village in Sultanpur in UP to celebrate the 94th
birthday of my mother. Less than a year later, all of us were there to mourn
her passing away, on 2nd September. Fortunately, I was there when
she breathed her last in the hospital as Lucknow. Thankfully, she had no
ailments and passed away peacefully, surrounded by her loved ones.
Two controversial events took place
earlier this month. The first was the arrest of a former Air Chief by the CBI.
Needless to say, it was a shock. I am only praying that the real culprits are
brought to book and ACM Tyagi comes out without a taint on his otherwise
spotless career. But what about the incalculable damage to his reputation and
the morale of the Services? Would this have happened in the time of Cariappa,
Thimayya or Manekshaw?
The second event was the appointment
of the next Army Chief, overlooking two who were senior to him. Here is a
historical perspective. I wonder if many people know that the job of the first
C-in-C of the Indian Army was offered by Sardar Baldev Singh, the Defence
Mister in the Interim Government to Brig Nathu Singh in 1946, but he did not
accept, since Cariappa was senior to him. In 1948 it was offered by Sardar
Patel to Lt Gen Rajendra Sinhji – he had a better war record, having won the
DSO in WW II - but he too refused, for the same reason. Has this breed become
extinct? Anyone who is interested can read the full story in the biographies of
Cariappa and Nathu Singh that are part of my book Leadership in The Indian Army: Biographies of Twelve Soldiers. They
are available on my blog:veekay-militaryhistory.blogspot.com.
After
Independence, there have been several supersessions in the appointment of the
Army Chief. When Gen Shrinagesh retired in 1957,
there were several contenders for the post. Sant Singh and Kalwant Singh were
from the same Sandhurst batch, having passed out on 29th Jan 1925.
The other two were Thimayya and Thapar, who had also passed out from Sandhurst
together, on 4th Feb 1926. Thimayya had been placed 15th in order of
merit, while Thapar was 18th. Hence, he was technically senior to Thapar. What
tilted the scales in favour of Thimayya was his war record - he had won the
DSO, and was the only Indian to have commanded a brigade in battle. The others
did not have any notable achievement to their credit. As expected, Thimayya was
selected for the top job in the Army, and took over as COAS on 8 May 1957. He
superseded Sant Singh, who resigned, as well as Kalwant Singh, who decided to
continue.
The second
incident occurred in 1974, when Prem Bhagat was sidelined. Because of his
immense popularity, even Indira Gandhi hesitated to supersede him. The Army
Chief, Gen Bewoor, was due to retire on 11th Apr 1974. Prem Bhagat,
who was then GOC-in-C Northern Command was the senior most Lt Gen in the
Army. At that time, the retirement age
for the Chief was 58, and 56 for Lt Gens. Since Bhagat was to reach the age of
56 only on 13th Oct 1974, he was almost certain to become the next
Chief. But the bureaucrats in the
Defence Ministry had other ideas. Having dealt with an intractable Chief like
Sam Manekshaw for four years, they did not want another strong Chief on their
hands. A routine letter is sent to officers who are due to retire, about six
months in advance. This was done in case of Bhagat also. In order to bring
pressure on him, and force him to resign, this fact was leaked to the Press,
which speculated that he would now seek premature retirement. Bhagat was
furious, and made it clear that he had no such intentions.
The
Government now realised that the only way to deny Bhagat the post of COAS was
to supersede him. However, by now he had become immensely popular, and his
supersession would have had wide ranging repercussions. So another ploy was
thought of. Due the extension granted to Manekshaw, Bewoor's tenure had been reduced, and he had
been Chief just for a year and half. To compensate him, it was decided that he
should be given a year's extension. This would ensure that Bhagat would retire as
a Lt Gen without technically being superseded. So this is exactly what happened. In July 1974, Bhagat accepted the appointment
of Chairman, Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and moved to Calcutta as a
serving Lt Gen. Sadly, he breathed his last just ten months later.
The most well known case of supersession occurred in
1983, when Arun Vaidya was made COAS, superseding SK Sinha, who was the VCOAS
and senior most. Sinha promptly put in his papers, but refused to comment on
the issue. The story made front page news and though Parliament
was not in session, there was a joint statement in the Press, by six prominent
MPs, which included Charan Singh, Jagjivan Ram, L.K. Advani, H.N. Bahuguna,
George Fernandez and Dharam Vir Sinha. They
severely criticised the Government for its interference in the
professionalism of the Army for short term political gains, and praised the
dignified reaction of Sinha, at his supersession. They demanded a debate in
Parliament, on the subject, in the forthcoming session. When the House met, the
members tried to raise the issue. However, in the Lok Sabha, the Speaker did
not permit a discussion on grounds of security. In the Rajya Sabha also, the Chairman
disallowed a debate, leading to angry exchanges between the treasury benches
and the Opposition, some of whom quoted the instance of Thimayya's resignation,
and the debate in Parliament that followed.
On 29th Dec, I am
scheduled to address officers undergoing the Higher Command course at the Army
war College, Mhow on ‘Leadership in the Indian Army – Our
Historical Legacy’. I have decided to concentrate on one important
quality that our predecessors had which the present generation of officers seem
to have forgotten - a stiff backbone.
We are still staying at Abhimaur Vikum in Palam Vihar in
Gurgaon. My son Abhimanyu lives on the first floor with his wife Jasmine and
their two children Bhuvanyu (13) and Khushi (11), who go to the Sun City School.
Bhuvanyu is budding cricketer and plays in State level tournaments for under 16
teams. My daughter Mauravi and her husband Vaibhav have recently moved from
Hextex Commune to Trinity near the DLF golf course. Their two daughters,
Mriggya (13) and Eshaana (11), study at the Kunskapsskolan School. Vaibhav, a
Captain in the Merchant Navy is presently sailing. Mriggya had hosted a girl
from Sweden for two weeks in her home this year, and will be going on a
reciprocal visit next year in July. The rest of the family is planning a trip
to Europe, after picking up Mriggya from Sweden.
That about sums it up for the year
2016. Those who wish to read the
previous newsletters can do so by logging on to my blog veekaysnewsletter.blogspot.com.
Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and Very Happy and
Prosperous New Year.
Vinay and Kumud Singh
G-31, Palam Vihar, Gurgaon – 122017
Tele: 0124-4074077, 9873494521,
9899110913
25thDecember 2016
The photo was taken in July 2016 in Devi Bhawan, which
has now been converted into a heritage hotel - Bharat Mahal Palace – by Kumud’s
brother, Col Jitendra Singh Nathawat. Kumud was born in this house.
