Former Army chief Gen. V.K. Singh (Retd) on Saturday described the allegations against him and the Technical Support Division (TSD) — the controversial military intelligence unit set up during his tenure — as “laughable” and “motivated” and a campaign to malign him.

The former Army Chief launched a scathing attack on Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, accusing him of a “personal agenda” and “shooting his mouth off” besides engaging in misgovernance in J&K. He also denied allegations that he had been earlier trying during his tenure to prevent the elevation of (current chief) Gen. Bikram Singh to the post of Army Chief and pointed out that the Army had not changed its position on a case of alleged human rights violation in the state that was pending in the courts.
But even as Gen. Singh defended himself, the ruling Congress party on Saturday criticised Gen. Singh, saying, “Silly explanations will not be satisfactory ... It appears that Singh is struggling hard to defend himself.” The Congress also said anyone denigrating the fair name of the Indian Army “cannot go scot-free and will be punished”.
Meanwhile, Gen. Singh said the TSD had been formed (during his tenure as Army Chief) as per the requirements in an operational directive from the defence minister in the wake of the 26/11 terror attacks. Gen. Singh further said the report of the Board of Officers — on the TSD — prepared by DGMO Lt. Gen. Vinod Bhatia and submitted to the ministry of defence (MoD) in March this year had “not stated” anything that was “incendiary” and that the report had been earlier sent to the national security adviser (NSA) for closure in July this year. Gen. Singh said he was being targeted by both the “arms lobby” which had been trying to bribe people and “palm off their equipment” and by some in the bureaucracy who had “stopped getting money”. Gen. Singh also said he was being targeted by some in “political circles” who felt he was uniting ex-servicemen who had not received a good deal from the UPA government.
The former Army Chief told the media that after the government decided to close the issue by sending it to the NSA, “a joint secretary of the defence ministry, who has since moved out from there, has leaked this report against me”. Lashing out at the J&K CM Omar Abdullah’s utterances, Gen. Singh said it should be ascertained as to who all in the Army are regularly in touch with him (Mr. Abdullah).
Defending the TSD, he said it was formed to secure the “internal situation” of the country from interests inimical to India and added that the allegation that it was a “rogue” unit was baseless. He said the TSD had “diligently carried out its task” and that it was “budgeted through the Director General of Military Intelligence (DGMI)”.
Speaking about the Army Board of Officers who submitted a report on the TSD, Gen. Singh said it had carried out an in-depth check and had gone to J&K to assess the work of the TSD in “stabilising the situation in J&K” and the “work on the borders”.
The Army’s secret report on the TSD’s functioning purportedly refers to attempts to topple the Omar Abdullah Government in J&K and to finance an NGO there to file human rights cases in court with an attempt to stop Gen. Bikram Singh’s elevation to the post of Army Chief.
But rubbishing these allegations, Gen. Singh said, “If we wanted to create problems ... , we would have changed the stance of the Army which it took when the incident occurred. We have not done it. It involves the killing of a man, a 70-year-old, who was labelled as a foreign terrorist. There is no terrorist in J&K who is more than 30 to 40-years-old. And therefore, there was a hue and cry raised by humanitarian groups in J&K because there was a family, a poor Gujjar family, who identified this man to be their’s. That is what has been happening. If we wanted to create problems, as has been averred, lot of things would have happened. And, let me assure you in recent times, as I believe, the Government of J&K has been putting pressure through the administration on the court and all other places, as the reports keep coming all over through the media to ensure that they can get exoneration in this particular case.”