DATE OF BIRTH OF GENERAL VK SINGH

General V.K.Singh PVSM, AVSM, YSM, the 24th Army Chief of the Indian Army, according to the media, had studied in Class X in the Birla Public School, Pilani in 1966. His date of birth (DoB) was recorded in his School Leaving Certificate as 10 May 1951. He applied for admission on 13 July 1966 for the entrance examination for 36th NDA course for which the eligible age limit was 15 years to 17 ½ years. At that time, his age was 15 years and two months and he was not underage for appearing for the entrance examination. On 3 Aug 1966, his father, late Jagat Singh of 14 Rajput is said to have given his DoB to the Selection Board as 10 May 1951. . It is not understood as to how the wrong date of birth of 10th May 1950 had entered in the records of the Army Headquarters.




The media had stated that the General had in writing accepted his DoB as 10th May 1950 for getting promotion to the rank of General. Some papers have even stated that the General when he was a young boy of 14 years had erroneously entered this wrong date of 1950 in some form and the Government is not accepting his correct date of birth of 1951 and is planning to retire him on 31 May 2012.



The General has now approached the SC for justice, so that he can continue to serve upto 31 May 2013. He has further stated that his integrity and honour have been affected by the refusal of the Defence Ministry / Government to accept his correct DoB of 1951.



Some of the newspapers have even mentioned that the Government, to save its face, may approve the new post of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) proposed some time earlier and offer the General that post. This rank would be equivalent to that of the rank of Field Marshal. Since the Government has yet to approve and implement the earlier recommendations of some Committee, approving the appointment of an officer nearing retirement as the CDS may not be acceptable to all the three Services. Some other newspapers have speculated that General might be hoping to become the first serving Field Marshal of the Indian Army.



If the post of CDS is introduced in the Services in India before May 2012, General Singh will have a good chance of becoming the first Serving Field Marshal. But if the appointment is approved after May 2012, the next senior most Chief of Staff from the Navy or Air Force could become the lucky person to hold that new post. That is the reason why the General has now approached the SC and might be putting the Government in a tight corner thereby making the appointment before he actually retires in May 2012.



The General is only obeying the old dictum “Aim at the sky boys, so that you may hit the top of the tree". To be ambitious is not a crime.

THE GENEROUS PETROL PUMP OWNER AT ERAVIPURAM - a real life incident

         

                 In 1963, I had come on one month Annual leave and had taken my newly acquired Lambreta scooter along with me. After staying with my wife and two children, in the house of her parents in Fort Cochin, I decided to go to Perumpetty near Ranni to visit the relatives of my mother.   

              Lambretta scooters had introduced a deluxe model in 1961. In those days I could fill the full tank of my scooter for Rs 20/- and could travel from Palghat to Cochin without refuelling enroute.  After roaming around on my scooter in the area of Ranni, Perumpetty and Tiruvalla and I had an almost empty fuel tank with about 1/8 th Gallon of petrol in it when I reached Eravipuram near the High School. 

            

               I had one new hundred Rupee note in my Terelene bushshirt pocket on that day. After filling the tank of my scooter as usual, I asked the attendant at the Burma Shell petrol pump at Eravipuram and he told me that I have to pay him Rs 15/- for the petrol and Rs 3/- for the engine oil, poured along with the petrol in the fuel tank, I searched for my hundred rupee note and could not find it in the pocket. 

               It appears that while I was driving the scooter fast on the main road, the bush shirt was fluttering and the hundred rupee note may have flown out from my pocket inadvertently. When I took out my money purse, kept in the pocket of my pants, I had only one ten rupee note and three one rupee coins it. Since I had no other money with me, I asked him whether he could empty the fuel tank and give me petrol and oil for Rs 13/- so that I could reach Kottayam and borrow some money to fill the tank full and then proceed to Cochin and Palghat. The petrol pump attendant reported the matter to the owner of the petrol pump, a middle aged man of about 50 years of age, who was sitting in the side room of the petrol pump

              Mr Chacko, the owner of the petrol pump came to me and told me that it was difficult to take out the petrol and oil mixture filled in the fuel tank of the scooter and it can’t be poured again in any cars or lorries. As such, I would have to pay for the whole quantity of petrol and engine oil supplied by the attendant and perhaps I could pay the remaining amount on my return trip. I told him that I was a Major in the Indian Army serving in Sikkim, currently on leave and that after going to Cochin, I wouldn’t have a chance to come on that road again in the next one or two years.  So he told me to pay whatever amount I have in my purse and clear the bill and the deficit amount he would account from his own pocket.

                I paid the total amount of Rs 13/- which was in my purse and thanked him profusely for his good gesture and started my scooter to proceed towards Kottayam.  Mr Chacko then called me back by clapping his hands and shouting to come back. So I drove my scooter back towards his room.  He then took out a five rupee note from his pocket and gave it to me and told me to give it to the petrol pump attendant, so that his accounts would be cleared.      

            

             I took that five rupees note from the hands of Mr Chacko and gave it to the petrol pump attendant to clear his account. Then as I turned to  mount and sit on my scooter, Mr Chacko came close to me and put a Rs 20/- in my bush shirt pocket and told me to be more careful about money and keep it safe in my purse, without allowing it to fly off in the air. Since I had a long way to go and as I had no money with me, even to buy a cup of tea or coffee on the way, he asked me to accept this small amount of Rs 25/- as a  present from the elder brother of a soldier who is serving in the Army, some where in J&K at that time.

           I spent the next half an hour talking to Mr Chacko and came to know that he was teaching in one of the schools at Eravipuram and that his youngest brother had joined the Army in the Corps of Signals as a Sepoy in 1962 and after serving for some time in Mhow had been posted to one of the Signal Companies in Udhampur in J& K. As the clouds were forming up in the sky, I took leave from him once again thanked him his generous gesture and promised that when I come next time to Eravipuram I would call on him and return his kindness and thoughtful gesture towards me in a remote area of Travancore

           In 1968 I had the opportunity to travel on that road in a car and I halted at the old Burma Shell petrol pump and enquired about Mr Chacko. In place of the Burma Shell sign boards, they had Indian Oil boards, and no one could give me details about Mr Chacko who used to own the old Burma Shell petrol pump at Eravipuram.

            

            Men may come and men may go, but their good deeds will never fade in our memory. Even now whenever I travel on the road from Tiruvalla to Kozenchery, I am always reminded of the good gesture of that middle aged petrol pump owner, and instead of taking money for the petrol he had supplied, he had even thought of the tea and snacks I would need enroute.  He did not want to mix up the accounts of the petrol pump with his own money and give a chance in future for the pump attendant to do any unauthorised dealings of his own in the accounts of the petrol pump for his own benefits or for the benefit of any of his relatives.

            In our country we need more people like Mr Chacko who don’t mix their business with their personal interests. How many of us would think of paying Rs 5/- to update the accounts of  the company or the firm we manage and how many would think of putting a 20 Rupee note in the pocket of a stranger  whom we many not see at all later in our life time?

Criminalization of Politics

Dacoits and murderers are finding their way into the Parliament these days. The power to disqualify any one of them is only with the Parliament. The public who elected them cannot recall them.

A person in jail is free to contest elections while he is on trial, but is not eligible to vote. Under the existing law, a person is disqualified for contesting elections only on conviction.

MPs and MLAs who are convicted on serious charges such as rape, murder, embezzlement and extortion, should be automatically disqualified and removed from their offices. Even Phoolan Devi, a well known dacoit was a member of Parliament. Maria Susairaj may be next....

Advertisements are getting on our nerves

            In my opinion, advertisements have become a nuisance in our daily life. All the pages in newspapers are covered with advertisements. As soon as you switch on the TV, you are harassed with unwanted advertisements. Same is the case with mobile phones - unwanted messages are repeatedly received, every minute, on our mobile phones. In our cities and towns, both sides of the roads are covered  with huge advertisement boards and the beauty of the buildings are hidden by these huge boards. There should be some restrictions in the size and number of such hoardings in a city.

           In olden days  there used to be an unwritten convention that for any publication to be known as a  newspaper, it  should have 60 % of its space allotted for news items and 40% space only could be allotted for advertisements.  Nowadays this proportion of news and advertisements have been reversed and one has to scan through the pages, to find out some news items. We won't mind even if the odd number pages in newspapers are allotted for reading materials and the even number pages are allotted for advertisements. In  TV Channels, no advertisements should be included at least during the news telecasts. The same advertisement should not be repeated again and again, three or four times, continuously as is being done currently on some channels. The advertisements should be changed at least after three or months.

           Wouldn't it be wonderful to read a slimmer newspaper without so many advertisements - and save a few trees in the bargain?

Fate of Adarsh

While all the authorities are debating the fate of Adarsh building, here is my opinion on what can be done to this building - demolish it and use the debris to create an island in the sea, next to the Naval Golf Course land. On that a monument could be constructed to remind all of the shame of the people who tried to benefit from the Kargil war widows plight.

The land where the current building stands is currently claimed by various people to belong to the Defence, Maharashtra State, etc - instead of disputing, a park should be developed on this land that could be used by all people - Defence as well as Mumbaites.

This will solve the problem of benami holders of the flats and those who have tried to gain illegal possession of these flats and be a warning to future offenders that crime does not pay!

Writers have no right to opine on unknown topics

The recent remarks by Arundhati Roy about Kashmir and its future are absolutely uncalled for.

A person who knows something about Kashmir and its background, could put forth their opinions for decision makers to consider. However, just being a writer having an ability to write one book and a few essays, does not give her the right to pass judgment on the Kashmir issue - which at the best of times is a very complex matter, even for subject matter experts to deal with due to its manifold ramifications on India and the politics of the sub-continent.

I suggest that she should go to Kashmir, stay there for a few months/years with the common man and after having studied the problems firsthand, put forth her solutions. This may give her some credibility while making her criticisms against what has been done so far.

Dealing with an aggrieved people or becoming a politician is much more difficult than getting a Booker prize.

Minimum qualifications and retirement of Indian Politicians

In our country, certain physical abilities, age restrictions and minimum educational qualifications are laid down for all private sector and Government employees, teaching staff, defence service personnel, police and security employees. Even to get the job of an electrician, the candidate must have the prescribed minimum educational qualifications and should be able to climb an electric pole within the given time. However, in order to become a Minister, MP or MLA, only the support of his or her own political party members is necessary - even for the post education minister, the candidate need not have any specified minimum educational qualifications.

Even though all employees have age limits and have to retire as per rules laid down by their organizations, there are no age restrictions for the Indian politicians and only death can make them ineligible to stand for elections. Instead of waiting Yamaraj (death) to settle their ability to contine in active service, I am of the opinion that these leaders should voluntarily abdicate their high positions of leadership at a certain prescribed age. They could subsequently use their fame and skills to organize social work for the benefit of their own party and constituent communities.

Since politicians are being remunerated for their services, some permanent rules including, minimum qualification requirements, retirement benefits and age limits should be laid down by the Government for everyone getting any monetary benefits from the government.