Thaindian News

Chandigarh, Jan 3 (IANS) Former Punjab chief minister and state Congress president Amarinder Singh Tuesday said that the letter he wrote to Defence Minister A.K. Antony on the birth date of Indian Army chief General V.K. Singh was his personal “opinion” and in his “personal capacity”.

In a clarification issued here after it was reported that Amarinder Singh had favoured correcting the birth records of the army chief, Amarinder said he had written the letter about a month ago putting forth his “opinion on the issue” only in his “personal capacity”.

Amarinder Singh, a former Indian Army captain who belongs to the erstwhile Patiala royal family, is leading the Congress in the Jan 30 Punjab assembly election.

Antony has rejected the army chief’s satutory complaint seeking to change his date of birth from May 10, 1950, to May 10, 1951. He first sought the change in 2006 but the defence ministry has steadfastly refused to budge.

Antony told parliament, in reply to questions last September that “the date of birth of General Singh has been maintained as May 10, 1950, at the time of his selection as corps commander in 2006 as well his subsequent promotions as army commander in 2008 and the chief of army staff in 2010″.

The army chief had filed a petition May 25, 2011 before the defence ministry asking it to treat May 10, 1951, as his date of birth. The ministry rejected this July 21, 2011.

Gen. Singh filed the statutory complaint in response to this.

If the ministry had granted Gen. Singh’s request, he would have served for another 10 months and he would have retired in April 2013.

That would have also resulted in Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh, who is the present Kolkata-based Eastern Army Commander, being denied the chance to become the next chief in May 2012 and his junior Lt. Gen. K.T. Parnaik, presently the Udhampur-based Northern Army Commander, would have become the next chief in April 2013.