Army chief age: Spotlight turns on low-profile Antony

Antony — known as an avid stickler for rules — went for the labyrinthine approach of tackling the matter at the bureaucratic level instead of looking at it politically. Determined that he did not want to politicise an institution as sacrosanct as the defence forces,he issued strict instructions that no one was to respond even if the issue came out into the public domain.

Even when the issue picked steam over the past 10 months and the Army Chief chose to speak publicly on it,he stood his ground,keeping away from any other option to end the crisis. He was,in fact,upset when Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh wrote a letter last month supporting the Army Chief,arguing this amounted to politicising the issue. Amarinder backed off,saying it was his personal view.

But as the crisis management reached the PM’s table on Tuesday,many feel the issue should not have been allowed to fester. On Tuesday,Antony came under attack from Opposition for letting it come into public domain. BJP leader Jaswant Singh,a former Army officer himself,went to the extent of saying he was “amazed at his (Antony’s) incompetence and sheer folly of treating such a sensitive matter in an insensitive manner”.

Unhappy voices have emanated from the government and the Congress too,though out of deference to Antony’s pre-eminent status within the party and government hierarchy,none are willing to comment openly.

“The issue is unfortunate. It should not have happened,” a senior party general secretary said. A senior Cabinet minister agreed it would have been better if the matter had been sorted out amicably with the Army Chief.