Congress hits back at Gen. V.K. Singh’s remarks; Jaitley stands by appointment of Lt. Gen. Suhag

After Smriti Irani’s educational qualification matter, the recently elected Bhartiya Janata Party found itself in another row after its Minister General V.K.Singh tweets remarked over the army chief designate Lt. General Dalbir Singh Subhag.

Lt. General Dalbir Singh Suhag is going to be the next army chief and General V.K. Singh launched a twitter remark against him. General V.K. Singh took it to twitter on June 10^th by tweeting, “If unit kills innocents, does dacoity and then head of organization tries to protect them, should he not be blamed?Criminals should go free!!”

Another tweet read, “MOD affidavit same as it gave to AFT under protective and conniving UPA, so what is new folks?”

This twitter remark gave the opposition a chance to take over General V.K. Singh. Congress’ National Spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi demanded resignation of General V.K. Singh for his comments. Another tweet from General V.K. Singh said, “All who got carried away by singhvi’s tirade, “Chhaj to bole so bole who chhalnikya bole jismen1800 chhed”.

Former Punjab Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh raised this issue in parliament house yesterday. He called V.K. Singh’s comments as ‘disgrace’. In Loksabha, Congress’ Anant Sharma raised this issue followed by Veerappa Moily who demanded censuring of General V.K. Singh over his tweeter remarks. After Capt. Amarinder Singh raised these issues, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley intervene saying, “As far as government is concerned, appointment is final and the government stands by it.”

The Economic Times reported that the statement in the Rajya Sabha came even as Jaitley sought an explanation from the defence secretary on his ministry’s affidavit in the Supreme Court, calling the decision of former Army chief Gen VK Singh to impose a promotion ban on Suhag as “illegal and premeditated”.

CNN IBN reported that the Centre has criticized its own minister. Reports were out that the Defence Minister called the ban against Suhagas ‘baseless.’

Let’s not forget that General V.K. Singh, when in army had taken disciplinary actions against Lt. General Dalbir Singh Suhag. A disciplinary and vigilance ban was imposed on Lt. General Dalbir Singh Suhag. Later an internal inquiry was done which cleared off the allegations and his promotion was pursued.

Now, after all this even the Defence Minister Arun Jaitley has stood by the decision of appointing Lt. Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag as the next chief of the Indian Army.

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About Suyash Karangutkar

Suyash Karangutkar is a young, dedicated and an enthusiastic journalist who has a deep interest in National and International Affairs. He is an ardent political spectator who finds politics fascinating. At Spectralhues, he heads the Mumbai team and covers National Affairs & Politics. He also occasionally writes columns for Spectralhues. He can be followed on Twitter @columnistsuyash