General VK Singh has Cut a Sorry Figure

General VK Singh had filed a constitutional writ in the Supreme Court on a matter which many considered trivial, when seen in the National context. The general had made it a matter of honor and one was bewildered that so trivial a matter got the entire attention of Army chief heading a 1.2 million strong army, the third largest in the world. What was the issue that so agitated the general? It is a mundane matter regarding his date of birth. The general ontended that he was born in 1951, while one branch in the army had recorded the date of birth as 1951. On the basis of his school certificate the General asked for an extension of one year as army chief. One wonders who the advisors of the general were. The general really stood no chance in court, for it is a fact that he had lived with 1950 as his date of birth in the army for 40 years. What stopped VK Singh from petitioning the Supreme Court earlier? Obviously the general was on sticky ground. The sad part is that the chief of a fighting and operational army had time to spare to fight on this mundane matter. Granted the general was right, but he had served hos term and should have left. But he chose to stay on and iin the bargain got a rap on his knuckles instead. Men like VK Singh are men with a limted horizon. They perhaps have no strategic vision. If the general had, he wpuld have not wasted his and the courts time with such infructous action. How much nicer it would have been in case Singh had petitioned the Supreme Court on a matter concerning officers and men like the One Rank One Pension issue? But small men cannot rise to greatness and in that respect VK Singh has shown that he is a puny individual with no claim to even a semblence of greatness.