Former Army Chief General VK Singh’s tell-all autobiography is hitting the stands on Friday without any formal book launch. From his age controversy to the politico-babu nexus in the Defence Ministry — the former Army Chief has dealt it all in his 364-page autobiography spanning 12 chapters and titled ‘Courage and Conviction’. And it is sure to kick up a major controversy.
VK Singh names his predecessor JJ Singh as the man behind the creation of his age controversy to manipulate the succession in the force.
He also speaks about the “narrow” mindset of certain officers and the race for attaining the top post in the Indian army. He also narrates his objection to using army against Maoists, which was not well taken by certain politicians.
Singh details how the Ministry of Defence intervenes into the affairs of the Army’s money spending and purchases. He explains the minute wise details of how the allotted budgets of forces were shown as unspent and later diverted to other projects upon the whims and fancies of political bosses. The former Chief says these unspent money of forces is diverted for the pet projects of big politicians either for vote bank politics or for public relation exercises in their constituencies.
According to Singh, he was the first General, who in his first year spent all the money allotted to the Army. He was congratulated by Defence Minister AK Antony for fully spending the allotted budget, which never happened in the history of the forces. The book says, but this never went well with other political-civilian nexus and in the next year Singh’s attempts to utilize the entire budget allocation was stalled.
A Joint Secretary level officer, who supported wholeheartedly Singh’s plans to utilize the funds, was shunted out from the post. Singh says the post was kept vacant for eight months by Defence Ministry’s politico-babu unholy alliance.
The former chief in his book explains how the Ministry’s officials change the technical specifications of the arms and ammunition during the purchase to suit favourable lobbyists of vendors.
Singh also takes on the media for floating the infamous coup report to malign him. Singh has co-authored the book with former journalist Kunal Verma. It is published by Aleph Book Company.