MoD bars army chief from attending US-organised conference

New Delhi: The ministry of defence has asked the Indian Army chief to skip a meet of regional army chiefs organised by the United States of America in Singapore. It has instead deputed a senior army general to attend the conference.

In what is being perceived as a major snub to the army chief, Gen VK Singh, his request to attend a meet of army chiefs of countries in the Asia-Pacific region has been turned down a second time and a principal staff officer of the army chief, Lt Gen Sumir Singh has now been deputed for the 28-30 July event to be held in Singapore.

Lt Gen Sumir Singh is currently director general (perspective planning).

It is being given to understand that the army chief may have invited the snub as an earlier request to attend the junket had already been turned down at the end of May. However, the chief persisted with his request and submitted a fresh application citing the attendance of the previous chief, Gen Deepak Kapoor, at one such meet.

The Singapore conference, sources say, is the seventh in the series of meetings of army chiefs of the region. The reason for turning down the request is that in five of the previous six meets India was represented only by the vice chief of army staff. The sole exception being that of the previous army chief, the somewhat discredited, Gen Deepak Kapoor.

The citing of this precedence by Gen VK Singh was sidestepped by the MoD on the grounds that Gen Kapoor had attended one such meet in a junior capacity and then attended the next meet as the chief in a follow-on capacity as there was continuity to the next conference in terms of subject matter.