Age row: AK Antony blames Army for chief Gen V K Singh's age row

NEW DELHI: Laying the blame on the army's doors for the controversy over Gen V K Singh's age issue, Defence Minister A K Antony today said it occured because the force kept two sets of his date of birth for 36 years and maintained there was no civil-military confrontation.

"For 36 years, two branches of the same institution maintained two dates of birth and that is why this controversy," he told reporters here in his first detailed comments on the raging controversy that is before the Supreme Court now.

"It is unfortunate that it took years together but I don't agree with some of you that it is a civil-military controversy," Antony added.

He suggested that the government had no role to play in the whole issue as this discrepancy was first noticed in 2006 by the Army headquarters and reconciled at that level then and later in 2008 by two respective chiefs