By IANS
New Delhi : Admitting to differences within the armed forces over the number of additional star-ranked officers each service should get, Defence Minister A.K. Antony Wednesday expressed confidence the issue would soon be resolved.
“There is no rivalry. Representing a case does not amount to rivalry,” Antony maintained while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Coast Guard conference.
“They have their claims. I don’t find anything wrong with that. We are taking steps to find a solution. We’ll find a solution,” the minister added.
At issue is the implementation of the second part of an expert committee’s recommendations on increasing the number of two and three-star ranks in the three services.
As per the recommendations of a committee headed by former defence secretary Ajay Vikram Singh, 156 such posts were to be created, with the army getting 95 and the other 61 being divided between the navy and the air force.
However, a spat erupted at a meeting Antony called on Aug 31 to discuss the issue, with army chief Gen. J.J. Singh arguing that the increased posts should be in proportion to the size of the three services and the tasks they handled.
Given the army’s role in guarding the borders, in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and in the northeast, and its increased deployment on internal security duties, it deserved to get more posts at the major general and lieutenant general level, Singh maintained.
Expressing his “surprise” at the issue being brought up, Antony is believed to have told Singh, navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta, and air force chief Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major to resolve the matter so that a comprehensive note could be put up to the cabinet.
Soon after the meeting, Singh also shot off a five-page note to Antony making out his case.
Now, the numbers game has expanded into another area with the navy and the air force contending that several of their two-star officers should be upgraded to bring them on par with their army counterparts.
On Wednesday, Antony also expressed his unhappiness over the delay in implementing the second part of the Ajai Vikram Singh report.
“The implementation has been unduly delayed. I don’t find any justification for this. We want to implement the report at the earliest,” the minister stated.