Sometimes silence is a golden rule: PM on Army Chief's remarks

ONBOARD PM'S SPECIAL AIRCRAFT: In a cryptic, but telling comment on Army Chief Gen V K Singh's recent controversial comments, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tonight said, "Sometimes silence is a golden rule."

On his way from Myanmar to Delhi, the Prime Minister was asked by reporters about Gen Singh's recent TV interviews in which he, among other comments critical of the government, had alleged that his letter to the PM was leaked by the Ministry of Defence.

Without elaborating, the Prime Minister made his cryptic response and moved on to the next question.

Gen Singh, whose tenure ends on May 31, had last week voiced criticism of the Defence Ministry for "selectively leaking" information to "fix" him.

He had also said that papers related to his age were "illegitimately" released.

Some papers that should never have been released under RTI rules were released and this included a couple of pages which the ministry itself had labelled "top secret", he had said.