The long goodbye of the Army chief: troop-movement reports alarm Delhi

Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma and the vice-chiefs of the three services faced the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence this week \u2014 and their answers to questions arising from The Indian Express's explosive report on non-notified troop movements toward the capital in January did not convince at least some of the panel's members.

The report, published April 4, said that on the night of January 16 \u2014 the very day Army chief General V.K. Singh filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against the government over his date of birth \u2014 central intelligence agencies detected an unexpected, unannounced movement of two Army units in the direction of Delhi: an infantry unit of the 33rd Armoured Division from Hisar in Haryana, some 165 kilometres away, and a unit of the airborne 50 Para Brigade from Agra in Uttar Pradesh, about 200 kilometres away. The units reached the outskirts of Delhi before being ordered back, the report said.

According to the newspaper, alarm ran to the top of the government. Sharma cut short a trip to Malaysia and returned to Delhi; late that night he summoned the Director General of Military Operations, Lt. Gen. A.K. Choudhary, to his Defence Ministry office to explain. Defence Minister A.K. Antony was informed, and police were asked to check vehicles on the roads leading into Delhi.

The Army's position was that the movement was routine \u2014 an exercise to test mobility in foggy conditions \u2014 and required no advance notice to the government. The Prime Minister called the report "alarmist" and said it should not be taken at face value; Antony called coup speculation "absolutely absurd." Serving generals, speaking anonymously to Business Standard because ministry rules barred them from talking to the press, dismissed the idea of a threatened coup and called parts of the report "spiced up."

Still, the timing electrified an already tense political-military relationship. General Singh's tenure had lurched through a public row over his age, the leaked publication of a confidential letter to the Prime Minister flagging gaps in defence preparedness, and the Tatra truck procurement controversy. The consensus view in Delhi held that the January episode was a breakdown in communication rather than a plot \u2014 but Parliament's defence committee, and a nervous capital, wanted it explained on the record.

Based on reporting from The Indian Express, Business Standard, PTI, and Reuters from April 2012.

Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma and the vice-chiefs of the three services today failed to convince a parliament panel with their answers to questions arising out of The Indian Express report on non-notified troop movements in the direction of the capital in January.

[caption id="attachment_6036" align="aligncenter" width="635" caption="Indian Army Chief General V.K. Singh (L), Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma (C), and Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal N.A.K. Browne (R) ."][/caption]

At least two members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence