Chief of Army Staff General Dalbir Singh has alleged that current MoS External Affairs General VK Singh and former Army chief resisted his promotion “with mysterious design, malafide intent and to arbitrarily punish” him for “extraneous reasons” in 2002.
In an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Dalibir Singh said, “I was sought to be victimised by the then COAS with the sole purpose of denying me promotion to the appointment of Army Commander,” reported Utkarsh Anand of the Indian Express.
His statement comes as a response to a petition by Lt Gen (retd) Ravi Dastane who alleged favouritism regarding the selection of Bikram Singh’s successor.
In May 2014, Dalbir Singh, then Vice Chief of Army Staff was made COAS by the outgoing Manmohan Singh government.
VK Singh then had objected the decision to citing "ethical reasons" despite the Election Commission giving the UPA-government a green signal.
The current MoS who had preceded Bikram SIngh had incidentally imposed a ban of Dalbir Singh in April-May 2012 for an alleged “failure of command and control” in 2011 in Assam.
The ‘Discipline and Vigilance’ ban was lifted once Bikram Singh took command.