EC yet to decide, murmurs in Cong on Antony’s ‘mistake’

Any hopes the Congress may have about going ahead with the next Army Chief’s appointment after the last day of poll on May 12 too stand thwarted with EC officials maintaining that the model code of conduct will “technically” be there till May 28 — the designated date before which the entire electoral process has to be completed. “Also, since the matter stands referred to the EC, the government has no choice but to wait for the EC’s decision,” a top EC source told The Indian Express.

With Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh slated to retire on July 31, Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Dalbir Singh is being viewed as the front-runner for the post. The appointment, however, has got caught in a controversy after the BJP expressed its opposition to the government’s move to the EC.

While the view that the government should not rush through with this appointment appears to have gained ground in the EC, many in the poll panel believe its earlier directive exempting defence forces from the model code of conduct should have settled the matter already.

In a March 27 letter to the Defence Secretary, EC’s Principal Secretary K Ajaya Kumar had written that “the model code of conduct is not applicable to any matter pertaining directly to the defence forces, be it the recruitments/promotions for defence forces, all service matters pertaining to them, defence purchases of all kinds, tenders relating to the matter of the defence forces and consequently no reference need be sent to the Commission pertaining to model code in these matters”.

“These instructions shall be treated as standing instructions of the Commission and will be applicable for all elections in future,” the EC letter had stated.

This letter was in response to the clearances sought by the Defence Ministry to procure 6,400 MT edible oil worth Rs 65.77 crore for troops and for routine procurement of already approved quantities of scaled ration items for troops.