NEW DELHI: After nearly a week of tumultuous development indicating a widening rift between the Army Chief and the Ministry of Defence, General V K Singh seemed to strike a conciliatory note by denying any ‘schism’ between the two.
The statement of the Army Chief has come on a day when the Defence Ministry informed that it had started a probe against an officer in the public sector undertaking Bharat Earth Movers Ltd for alleged irregularities in the procurement of Tatra trucks way back in 2009.
The Army Chief held the media responsible for projecting every issue as a battle between the civilian and military establishments.
“I have nothing left to say. You guys (media) speculate a lot,” said General Singh in a written statement on Friday. Declaring the Army and his office as a part of the government, the Army Chief denied any schism with the civilian authority. Without naming anybody, the General said certain elements were at work to create a rift between him and the government. “There are rogue elements in our society who have played an active role in trying to create a schism between the Honourable Raksha Mantri and the CoAS.”