AV Singh slams army for distorting recommendations on new promotion policy

NEW DELHI: Slamming the army for distorting and manipulating his recommendations on a new promotion policy that is now at the center of a widening rift within the service, former bureaucrat AV Singh has said that a section of officers have been unfairly favoured against the spirit of the committee report that he had drafted.

Singh, who led the AV Singh Committee (AVSC) that looked into lowering the age profile of commanding officers in the Army after the Kargil war, has broken his silence on the matter, saying that negative repercussions could emerge due to the perceived discrimination. A wide rift has emerged between officers of the infantry and artillery and those from other arms over a 2009 promotion policy for Colonels.

The policy, derived by the army from the 2004 AVSC report, has created a disproportionate amount of new ranks for the infantry and artillery against other arms like the armoured corps, signals, engineering and mechanized infantry. Singh, who retired as the Defence Secretary, says the policy he drafted was never aimed at favouring a particular section of the army. “There was no reference to a specific arm or service in the report. The single point charter was how to bring down the age of commanding officers and brigade commanders,” Singh told ET.