The February 2012, decision of the Indian Supreme Court has put an end to the drama and intrigue launched – to his eternal shame – by the current emotionally unbalanced Indian Army Chief, General Vijay Kumar Singh about his two dates of birth – May 10 1950 and May 10, 1951 – maintained in the Army records. The four star general, (under the ‘umbrella’ of a controversy he himself created) wanted to finagle an extra year of service but the Supreme court slapped him down and ruled that the General’s date of birth will henceforth be May 10, 1950. Period! The above behavior by the General has forced the Indian Defence ministry, infamous for its’ dishonest intrigues in the past at promotion time of a new Army Chief, to remain honest this time.The ministry, headed by gutsy Defence Minister A. K. Antony, who seems to be an honest individual, a Christian convert from a humble lower caste Dalit background in the world’s largest demoNcracy, where Caste trumps everything, has avoided any favoritism this time, by selecting the next senior most Lt. General, who happens to be a turbaned Sikh, Lt. General Bikram Singh, as the new Indian Army Chief. The retirement date of the present Army Chief had led to all sorts of theories in the past few months. It was only on February 10 this year that the Supreme Court firmly refused to reconcile the date of birth of General Vijay Kumar Singh, who had stupidly filed a suit in the apex court making such an outlandish request.
The Indian Supreme Court ruled, on February 10, 2012, that the date of birth would remain as May 10 1950 and would not be changed to May 10, 1951, as claimed and requested by the egocentric Indian Army Chief, Gen. V. K Singh, a dimwitted individual, belonging to the Jat tribe, from the state of Haryana. The surprise announcement by the Indian Defence Ministry, about a new Army Chief came earlier this week, on Saturday, 3 March, 2012, about 90 days ahead of the scheduled day of assumption of charge – on 31 May, 2012 – as against the 60-day norm the government has been following in such matters in the past. The Defence ministry’s move removes uncertainty over the successor, following a rash of speculative reports, in the media, that the current Army Chief, Gen. Vijay Kumar Singh, a spiteful individual after the Supreme Court ruling, could put in his retirement papers early, which could open a ‘Pandora’s box of intrigues’, to alter the defence ministry’s ‘honest’ succession plan of the senior-most Lt. General taking over as the next Indian Army Chief from retiring egotistic Indian Army chief, General Vijay Kumar Singh.
The newly appointed Army Chief, Lt Gen Bikram Singh currently heads the Indian Army’s Eastern Army Command and is stationed in Kolkata in West Bengal. The insurgency-ridden states of North-Eastern India are under his domain of duties. Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh, the Army-chief-designate during his long career has headed various formations in the Srinagar-based 15 Corps of the Indian Army in Indian occupied Kashmir. It is the same area where thirty five innocent Kashmiri Sikhs were murdered in cold-blood in a state sponsored act of terrorism, by uniformed Indian intelligence agents, on 20 March, 2000. The gory incident was synchronized with the arrival of U.S. President Bill Clinton, on a state visit to India, to have maximum media effect. Lt Gen Bikram Singh has also served as deputy force commander of a multi-nation UN peace keeping mission in Congo. He has also served as UN observer in Nicaragua and El Salvador during the early 1990s. According to Indian media reports Gen. Bikram Singh was commissioned into the Sikh Light Infantry Regiment, on March 31, 1972, and during the last four decades, he has served in a variety of Command and Staff appointments. Besides having commanded a Corps in the Northern Command, he served as Deputy Force Commander of the multination U.N. Peace Keeping Mission in Congo. Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh has studied at the Indian Defence Services Staff College, the Army War College and the U.S. Army War College, Pennsylvania in the United States. He also has an M. Phil degree in Defence Management from Indore University. He is a recipient of various Indian military medals.
When the British Colonials left South Asia, in August 1947, the Sikh Regimental Center, like a number of other Regimental Centers which are still there, was located about 50 miles North East of New Delhi in the second largest military Cantonment on the subcontinent, in Meerut in U.P. Meerut cantonment lies between 28°57’ to 29°02’N latitude and 77°40’ to 77°45’E longitude in the Indo-Gangetic plains of India. It is bound on the north by Muzaffarnagar, in the south by Bulandshahr while Ghaziabad and Baghpat districts form the southern and western limits. The river Ganga forms the eastern boundary and separates the district from Moradabad and Bijnor. Meerut has seven railway stations: Meerut City, Meerut Cantt, Partapur, Sakoti Tanda, Daurala, Mohiuddinnpur and Pabli Khas. Meerut City station is the busiest in the city. Meerut Cantt was founded in 1865 and serves as a secondary railway station. Meerut lies on the Delhi–Saharanpur railway line.
For the information of the readers it is the same Meerut Cantonmemnt where the the famous cry of “Dilli Chalo” (“Let’s march to Delhi!”) was first raised to start the 1857 rebellion against the British Colonials. Meerut cantonment was also the place where the 1857 rebellion started in earnest when Hindu and Muslim soldiers were given rifle cartridges rumored to have a coating, which had to be removed by biting it, rumored to be made of cow and pig fat. These historical facts made the new rulers, the “Nehrus the Patels and Gandhis’ the founding fathers of ‘free’ India – the evil nexus of the Brahmin and the Bania – nervous about a Sikh military presence so close to Delhi the capital city of ‘New’independent India. Within a few years of Indian independence in 1947 the morally repugnant Indian rulers wanted to put the martial Sikhs in their place, with ‘studied insults’, which actions exposed their Anti-Sikh attitude. It was about the time when instructions were circulated to civil administrators in India to consider the Sikhs as a criminal tribe. It was also the time when the Indian Constitution showed the Sikhs as being Hindus. It is obvious, the new morally repugnant rulers felt safe by ordering the then Army Chief to move the Sikh Regimental Center out of Meerut Cantonment, and relocate it to a new under construction Cantonment – the Ramgarh Cantonment which is surrounded by snake-infested thick jungles. Ramgarh Cantt., is located 30 km (19 mi) from Ranchi, which is the capital of the new Indian state of Jharkhand. Ramgarh Cantonment is located six hundred miles East of New Delhi.
Time alone will tell if the newly appointed Indian Army Chief, General Bikram Singh, will have the moral courage to use his authority to undo these studied insults, these wrongs, aimed at the pride of the twenty eight million strong proud Sikh nation captive in the Indian ‘map’ since 15 August, 1947 when Imperial Britain quit South Asia in haste. General Bikram Singh has the authority, as Army chief, to move the Sikh Regimental Center back to Meerut or where ever in India. The chances are that the new Army Chief will twiddle his thumbs and do nothing about these studied insults to the Sikhs! Obviously, there is only ONE solution for the Sikhs – a democratic food and water rich Sikh buffer state of Khalistan – stretching from the Jumna river in the East, to the Pakistan border in the West, acting as a bridge of commerce between the seven Stans of Central Asia and the countries of South Asia.a
The birth date controversy has been on the simmer for over a year. The Adjutant General's branch which deals with manpower has issued recorded General Singh's date of birth as May 10, 1951 but the Military Secretary's branch that deals with promotions and postings recorded it as May 10, 1950. General Singh insists 1951 is his correct date of birth and calls 1950 a clerical error but, after considering the stark response of Defense Ministry over his age controversy, Indian Army General V K Singh, in order to save his reputation, has come up with another gambit of a compromising formula for the Government with his recent assertions of terming it a battle for honor and not tenure. The suggestion is that he would resign on time if the ministry accepted 1951 as his year of birth. What a joke!!
