Defence Ministry was leaking information to fix me: Gen Singh

Five days before his controversial 26-month tenure as Army Chief comes to an end, Gen V K Singh today voiced criticism of the Defence Ministry for "selectively leaking" information to "fix" him.

In a series of interviews to TV channels, the General also made no secret of his unhappiness with the Supreme Court where he lost a legal battle over his age in February.

In an apparent reference to a remark by Justice R M Lodha, one of the two judges on the bench that heard his case, the chief said a very senior apex court judge had told him to "blow with the wind".

"If all of us are going to blow with the wind then we will all become muggers, we will all become corrupt," he said, according to a transcript of his interview released by the Times Now channel.

Justice Lodha had actually remarked, "Wise men are those who move with the wind. We take pride in having (an) officer like you. Credit must go to you."

In a separate interview to CNN-IBN, the Army Chief said he had withdrawn his petition on the age issue because the Supreme Court gave no no decision. "They tried to arbitrate. Then I realised that you are fighting a system."

During the interviews, Singh said it was not not "just lobbies" working against him, but "some people are trying to protect people who are basically doing wrong things."

Turning on the Ministry of Defence, he said papers related to his age were "illegitimately" released. Some papers that should never have been released under RTI rules were released and this included a couple of pages which the ministry itself had labelled "top secret".

Asked if he was saying that he had been set up, the General replied, "obviously".

When pressed to state as to who was releasing the information, Singh replied that it was the ministry.

... contd.

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