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Top
Indian Air Force Commander Forced To Resign
By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, March 19 (IslamOnline) - Week-long defiance and suspense
ended today when a top Indian Air Force commander, charged with
seeking political intervention to further his career, resigned from
service. He faced outright dismissal if he refused to put in his
papers.
Air
Marshal MS Sekhon, head of the Indian air forces' southern command,
winner of India's top gallantry awards, was stripped of his post of
Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Air Command, last week. He
was asked to resign following reports that he had written to former
Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal to lobby with Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the plum assignment of Western Air
Force commander.
Sekhon's
resignation came this morning, after the rejection of his written
plea for reconsideration of the IAF stand citing some cases of IAF
top brass who lobbied to get their present assignments.
Sekhon,
tipped to be the next air force chief, became fall guy in a tussle
with his peer, Western Air Command chief, Air Marshal Vinod Bhatia.
He almost caused a war between India and Pakistan on February 19
when his aircraft strayed 30 kms into Pakistani territory and stayed
there for 11 long minutes. The aircraft was attacked by a Pakistani
SAM missile which hit part of the aircraft but it managed to land
safely.
The
erring air marshal leaked to the press a fake story claiming that
his aircraft was hit by 'friendly fire'. Soon this lie was detected
and Air Marshal Sekhon was asked to conduct an enquiry. Since the
enquiry was to go against the commander of the western command, he
was quick to take action to neutralize the enquiring officer.
Sources
close to the other air marshal leaked to the press a copy of
Sekhon's letter to the Punjabi politician seeking favors. Though
common, such lobbying is illegal in India and if proved leads to
serious action against the erring officer.
It
may be recalled that the Indian Defense Ministry is already in the
eye of a storm following the Internet portal Tehelka.com’s
sensational exposé. This had revealed the corrupt practices of some
of the top defense officers and ruling party politicians who took
bribes in wine, women and money from middle-men and agents of a
fictitious arms manufacturing firm for facilitating an arms deal.
Union
Minister for Defense George Fernandes had to resign from the
Government but was later re-inducted by the Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee due to political compulsions despite the matter
being still under probe.
Armed
forces, together with higher judiciary, are the only two
institutions which still remain to a great extent unaffected by the
all-pervasive corruption in the Indian polity.
But
political games with armed forces appointments are common since
Nehru's days. Only two years ago Navy chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagat
was dismissed when he differed with the Defense Minister.
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