THE BJP COMMUNAL EFFECT ON THE ARMED FORCES

THE SAD CONNECT OF SAD(SHIROMANI AKALI DAL) WITH ARMED FORCES SIKH TOP BRASS.......

The latest news of former Army Chief Gen JJ Singh jumping into the electoral fray on a SAD nomination is nothing unusual. Serving Sikh officers have had a history of being associated with SAD and that have resulted in some very SAD outcomes in the past.

DISMISSAL OF NAVAL CHIEF ADMIRAL VISHNU BHAGWAT

Former Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat was the first victim of Fernandes' bizarre understanding of what civil control of the armed forces means. In 1998, Bhagwat refused to promote the Andaman and Nicobar Fortress Commander, Vice Admiral Harinder Singh, as Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (DCNS).

His decision was well-founded. Apart from several legal issues, Harinder Singh had drawn adverse notice after he accepted hospitality from two arms traders during a visit to Moscow in 1997, one of whom figures on the Ministry of Defence blacklist.

Then, in a petition to his superiors, Harinder Singh had levelled venomous communal allegations, describing Bhagwat's wife, a leading lawyer, as a "half-Muslim, card-carrying member of the Communist Party", and claiming that his chief's Staff Officer, A.A. Lone, was linked to hawala traders. Later, he covertly taped conversations with peer officers, seeking to entrap them as saying that Bhagwat had anti-Sikh biases, and then leaked the transcripts to the press.

Under other circumstances, Harinder Singh would have faced court-martial and a prison term. Instead, Bhagwat became the first serving chief of any of India's armed forces to be dismissed from service, after he protested against the Union government's decision to promote Harinder Singh, ignoring his writ.

There were several reasons underpinning Bhagwat's removal, not the least of which was his resistance to powerful arms-import lobbies. But there was another, less-known factor: Harinder Singh had the support of the SAD. SAD MP Prem Singh Chandumajra attacked Bhagwat on communal lines, saying that it "was quite obvious he was opposed to having a Sikh as deputy naval chief".

He went on to become the Flag Officer Commanding-in-chief of the Southern Naval Command after his tenure as DCNS. Harinder Singh, perhaps unsurprisingly, retired from service with none of the serious allegations against him ever having been investigated.

AIR MARSHAL MANJIT SINGH SEKHON CASE

In early March 2002, news broke of a letter written by the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Air Command to Prakash Singh Badal, the then Punjab Chief Minister. In the October 2001 letter, the Thiruvananthapuram-based officer asked Badal "to speak with Hon'ble Prime Minister and get me posted to WAC (Western Air Command) as the change-over at WAC/VCAS (Vice Chief of Air Staff) is due in end-December 2001". In return, Sekhon promised to "tackle J&K and Pakistan as required by the government", and also "help people of Punjab in many ways". "With Akalpurukh's (the Almighty's) blessings and your help," Sekhon signed off, "I can become the Chief of the Air Staff of Indian Air Force one day." Badal's Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which was voted out in Punjab in the February 2002 Assembly election, was a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance which was in power in New Delhi in 2002.

For his outrageous breach of service rules, Sekhon was forced to submit his resignation on March 19, after being threatened with summary dismissal.

By the accounts of his peers, Sekhon was not a corrupt or dishonest officer. What is really interesting about Sekhon's letter, then, is just how transparent it was. The Air Marshal wrote on his own letterhead when he could have made a verbal request to Badal, or sent a note through an intermediary. Indeed, according to reports, he even sent a similar note to Union Defence Secretary Yogendra Narain, advertising himself as "the most warrior-like Sikh officer". Clearly, Sekhon did not think he had done anything to be embarrassed about. And that says not a little about the state the Indian armed forces had been reduced to under the reign of Defence Minister George Fernandes.

THE BJP AND HINDUTVA CONNECT

But the SAD is not the only party to have played communal politics in the armed forces. The Bharatiya Janata Party's record has, if anything, been worse. During the Kargil war, Director-General of Military Operations Lt Gen N.C. Vij and Air Vice Marshal S.K. Malik agreed to brief the BJP National Executive. The May 6, 1999, briefing broke Army tradition.

Gen NC Vij went on to become the Chief of Army on 31 Dec 2002. Air Vice Marshal S.K. Malik was promoted to Air Marshal in Feb 2002 and finally retired as Vice Chief of Air Staff in 2005.

In the Lok Sabha elections that followed the war, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee himself chose to deliver an election speech in Karnal from a platform decorated with portraits of the three service chiefs.

Again during the August 1999 campaign, an injured Param Vir Chakra winner, Grenadier Yogendra Yadav, was ordered to touch Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Giriraj Kishore's feet at the Army Hospital in New Delhi. When the soldier was found physically unable to comply, his wife performed the gesture in his stead.

HISTORY IS REPEATING ITSELF UNCANNILY ALL OVER AGAIN NOW THAT BJP/NDA IS BACK IN POWER