[Retired Gen. Ved Prakash Malik, who headed the Indian army
in a limited border war with Pakistan in 1999, concurred with that view
Wednesday. “Every army in the world faces shortages,” he said, “but how did a
classified letter of this kind come into the public domain?”]
By Rama
Lakshmi
 |
(Raveendran/AFP/Getty
Images) - A letter, written earlier this month by
Indian
army chief V. K. Singh to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,
has caused an embarrassing face-off between the
army and the government |
NEW DELHI —
India’s tanks do not have enough shells to fire, its air defenses are obsolete
and its ill-equipped infantry can’t fight at night, the country’s army chief
told the prime minister in a letter this month, an Indian newpaper reported
Wednesday.
Excerpts
from the letter from army chief V.K. Singh to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
were published in the Mumbai-based newspaper Daily News & Analysis. The
revelations prompted condemnation of both the government and the army among
lawmakers, who demanded the army chief’s immediate dismissal over the letter’s
publication and other incidents and accused the government of neglecting
national security.
An embarrassed A.K. Antony, India’s defense minister,
confirmed to Parliament on Wednesday that V.K. Singh had sent the letter and
pledged to “protect every inch of our motherland” by speeding up steps to modernize
the country’s million-man army.
Amid tensions with neighboring China and Pakistan, India has
shopped aggressively for weapons in recent years in an effort to transform what
has long been a corrupt and bureaucratic force into a lean, lethal army fit for
21st-century warfare. A Swedish research group said this month that between
2007 and 2011, the country had emerged as the world’s largest weapons importer.
In his letter, however, Singh said the army’s major combat
weapons are in an “alarming” state, alleging that its tank fleet is “devoid of
critical ammunition to defeat enemy tanks” and that India’s air defenses are
“97 percent obsolete.”
There was no immediate response from the prime minister’s
office.
In October, the weekly magazine India Today ran a story
titled “Not
Ready for War,” which argued that years of neglect had rendered the army
unfit to fight a war.
Antony’s criticism was not directed at Singh for sending the
letter but focused instead on its publication. “By the very nature of these
issues, they cannot be a matter of public debate,” he said, adding, “I have
made serious note of the observations.”
Retired Gen. Ved Prakash Malik, who headed the Indian army
in a limited border war with Pakistan in 1999, concurred with that view
Wednesday. “Every army in the world faces shortages,” he said, “but how did a
classified letter of this kind come into the public domain?”
Malik also declined to take issue with the letter’s
allegations. “There is no doubt that our weapons procurement procedures in the
civil and military bureaucracy are very, very slow, and it does affect
decision-making,” he said. “Corrective steps must be taken immediately, especially
because of the kind of environment India lives in today.”
Earlier this year, V.K. Singh claimed that he had one more
year of tenure and urged the Supreme Court to change his recorded date of
birth. The court warned that it could rule against him, and Singh withdrew his
case. On Monday, Singh told the Hindu newspaper in an interview that he had
been offered a bribe of almost $3 million a year ago by a retired army
officer to approve the purchase of trucks from a particular company. Singh said
he refused the bribe and reported the incident to the defense minister.
Laloo Prasad Yadav, a lawmaker, told reporters that Singh
was “depressed” and “frustrated” and that his actions had hurt the army and the
country.
The army chief is scheduled to retire in May.
TOP U.S. WAR COMMANDERS MEET WITH PAKISTAN’S ARMYCHIEF
[Tensions have
gradually eased in recent weeks, following outreach by the Obama
administration. President Obama made a personal overture toward normalizing
what he called the sometimes strained alliance Tuesday, during a meeting
with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Seoul, where both leaders
were attending an international summit on nuclear security.]
By Richard Leiby
 |
Khalid Tanveer/AP - Pakistan's army chief Gen. Pervez
Kayani, right,
and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, left, watch a military
exercise.
Two top U.S. met with Kayani Wednesday to discuss military
cooperation, which suffered after U.S. airstrikes killed
26 Pakistani troops. |
ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan — Two U.S. generals met with Pakistan’s army chief on Wednesday in
a high-stakes meeting aimed at nudging Islamabad to resume a cooperative
relationship with the United States.
It was the first
formal discussion among top military commanders since American airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at Afghan border outposts in
a hotly disputed incident last November.
Tensions have
gradually eased in recent weeks, following outreach by the Obama
administration. President Obama made a personal overture toward normalizing
what he called the sometimes strained alliance Tuesday, during a meeting
with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Seoul, where both leaders
were attending an international summit on nuclear security.
The Nov. 26 border
airstrikes fueled already-furious public opposition to any continued Pakistani
support for the U.S.-led effort to defeat a Taliban insurgency inside
Afghanistan.
On Wednesday,
Pakistan’s powerful army chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, convened talks in
nearby Rawalpindi with U.S. Gen. James Mattis, who oversees U.S. military
operations in the region, and Gen. John Allen, the top commander in
Afghanistan.
Although no agenda
was released, a chief concern of the U.S. brass is whether Pakistan once again
will allow NATO supply convoys to use a route across Pakistan’s border to bring
supplies into Afghanistan.
In retaliation for
the airstrikes — which the United States said were accidental but Pakistan
called deliberate — Pakistan not only shut down that crucial transit route but
also banished the U.S. from an air base used in the CIA’s drone campaign
against al-Qaeda and other militants who operate in the country’s northwestern
tribal region.
A military official
here, who spoke on condition of anonymity, characterized the visit by Mattis
and Allen as “very important” and said the discussion would involve “how to get
back to complete normal relations.”
Another official
with knowledge of the talks said they included improving cross-border
cooperation between the two militaries.
The meeting comes in
the midst of a Pakistani parliamentary debate meant to reset the terms
of Islamabad’s contentious relationship with Washington. The United States has
relied to varying degrees on its counterterrorism alliance with Pakistan since
shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“I welcome the fact
that the parliament in Pakistan is reviewing, after some extensive study, the
nature of this relationship,” Obama said at brief joint news conference with
Gilani on Tuesday. “I think that it’s important for us to get it right.”
Pakistan’s
parliament technically has the authority to re-open the supply routes and set
other national security policies. But the military, commanded by Kayani,
frequently finds ways to subvert civilian decisions. Kayani often is described
as the most powerful official in Pakistan.
The Pakistani
Taliban has warned that it will target lawmakers who vote for a resumption of
the NATO convoys. And opposition parties spent Tuesday denouncing portions of a
parliamentary national security committee report that is the starting point for
new bilateral terms of engagement between the estranged allies — opposing in
particular any support for NATO.
