The larger context here is the increasing trend of pressures being brought to bear by several interest groups, including quasi politicoreligious groups on key senior appointments in the country

No, this is not about someone’s morphed or real CD and why he has vanished into his self dug hole if it was only morphed. This is neither about investigators morphing perceptions of the Bofors beneficiaries, falsely implicating Amitabh Bachchan by planting the story in Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter after investigators failed to buy out Chitra Subramaniam – no wonder CBI will never be permitted to come under Lokpal for where will millions of skeletons hide?

This is about the continuing attempts to break the institutional integrity of the military and the country through sustained perception morphing. The latest is the vicious media campaign concerning the PIL filed by Admiral L. Ramdas, former Navy Chief and others in the controversial appointment of the Army Chief. The most damaging false allegation planted in the media is that the petitioners have given a religious and communal identity hue to the issue, which is wholly untrue. This is a clear attempt by conspirators to divide perceptions of the uniformed, veteran fraternity and citizenry knowing only a small number would read the writ petition.

Consequences of this serious and treasonous attempt to subvert sections of the military obviously are of little concern to wicked minds. The petition did mention evidence of the attempted interference of the SGPC to influence General J.J. Singh’s appointment in 2005 as Army Chief (given ample media coverage then) but clearly mentions that in all probability had no impact on the ACC chaired by the Prime Minister.

The larger context here is the increasing trend of pressures being brought to bear by several interest groups, including quasi politico-religious groups on key senior appointments in the country. The PIL was filed not only to protect the institutional integrity of the Armed Forces but also of the PMO and the RMs office. As for announcing the new Chief, it should have been incumbent on the government that first retirement orders for General V.K. Singh be issued and the new incumbent be announced post clearing ongoing cases against him – both of which has not happened. Perceptions were morphed through false reporting that retirement orders of V.K. Singh have been issued which has not happened to-date. When it is obvious that such fallacious media briefing is done by the Principal Information Officer of the government, then where is the doubt left of a conspiracy? Not only was the announcement of the new incumbent three months in advance against the normal 60 days, government said he had been cleared of all cases. This, when the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has not yet given judgment in the false encounter case and government/MoD asked for no inputs from the Army on the UN instigated inquiry involving him.

If proper procedures were followed, where would have been the necessity of a PIL? The clearance in question has apparently been given by the IB which has no jurisdiction either on J&K High Court or an inquiry conducted by the Army. When the petition of General V.K. Singh had been dismissed in February this year, the Court Order had merely forced the government to withdraw its December 31 letter of last year rejecting his statutory complaint. Yet, perceptions were morphed through media blitz saying, “Chief asked not to wash dirty linen in public”, “V.K. Singh asked to learn to blow with the wind”, “Court tells Chief for purposes of record of service his date of birth will be May 10, 1950” – all of which is totally false. This time, blaring headlines that the PIL has been dismissed by the Supreme Court is only half the truth. The Court Order says “it is clarified that dismissal of Writ Petition shall not affect the legal proceeding or matter pending in the court or any other forum”. The issue is yet to reach its logical conclusion.

The views expressed herein are the personal views of the author.