These acts are no aberrations. But a habit.

The NDA Job Scam – When The Fence Eats Into The Garden

The Times of India edition of 5^th July 2012 published a story on the civilian employees recruitment scam, in the premier pre commission training establishment for defence services, National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla. The matter related to moneys taken from the prospective candidates for 40 vacancies in the group ‘C’ posts of cooks, waiters, cadet orderlies, gardeners, attendants, library assistants  etc, and ensuring their employment by tweaking the process and blatantly cheating at the level of the Board of Officers (BOO), constituted for guaranteeing a fair and merit based selection. The case, which is presently being investigated by the CBI, involves two army colonels, civilian officers and employees, touts and local civilian contractors, who schemed and connived to cheat and profit from the opportunity. The Ministry of Defence, in a bid to ensure a fair and proper investigation into the matter has removed the Commandant, NDA who has come under suspicion, owing to the fact that his staff officer, one Kulbir Singh, is one of the main accomplices in this scam. So far, so good. My story, is about the other accused colonel and who is Anil Kumar Singh, the Physical Training Officer, NDA and  is the Presiding Officer of the BOO.

This officer, like many others transferred from the Mechanised Infantry into the Army Physical Training Corps (APTC) and has served under me, while I was in service. While I was his superior and the Head of Service of the APTC, A K Singh was always and ever on the lookout for any opportunity which came his way to ingratiate himself to me as also others, who mattered. The officer, an ex NDA himself and from India Squadron, is of an average calibre but ambitious to the extent of going to any distance, for self seeking positional and promotional gains. On an occasion, when I was the Deputy Director General (DDG) in the Integrated Head Quarters of Defence (Army), he wrote to me an unsigned demi official letter, requesting for an undue favour regarding his posting, which was most unbecoming in the circumstances, keeping in mind the turnover of officers in the interest of the Corps and the Organization. This was seen by me in a very adverse and poor manner, and I recommended suitable administrative action against him, to his superior officer and the commandant. The commandant doled out an innocuous warning to the officer, as a matter of routine compliance to my observation, probably because of his closeness to the officer for whatever good reason or otherwise. Given the unbecoming alliance between some senior officers in the Army institute of Physical Training (AIPT) and the Directorate General of Military Training, A K Singh managed to get his way with regard to his posting, with tacit support from the then Director General of Military Training, who also happens to be the ex officio Colonel Commandant of the APTC and who prevailed upon the parent Military Secretary’s branch, to do the needful. By the time I learnt about this, The DGMT and the Colonel Commandant was on his way on promotion to command a Corps in the Northern Sector. I, then wrote to the Deputy Military Secretary (Dy MS) about the grave wrong which was about to get done, should the officer’s request be upheld with regard to his posting, notwithstanding the favourable recommendation of the erstwhile DGMT and Colonel Commandant, who, was by now comfortably ensconced in his new appointment, on promotion. My letter was also forward to the ex DGMT, apprising him about my request to the Dy MS, to ignore the former’s directions on AK Singh’s request about his posting. The Dy MS saw good reason in my recommendations to undo what had been done and posted out the officer from where he wanted to remain for another year or so.

Besides the above, the officer is so obsessed with the thought and desire to somehow succeed, that he can stoop to a level of cringing subservience – just for the sake of that annual report which could well become his gateway to the next rank. And, this is exactly what his undoing became in the instant matter of getting detailed for and provided with an opportunity to ingratiate him to some superior authority, who had a vested interest in the murky BOO, since known as the ‘Job Scam’, to become a camp follower of the commandant NDA. AK Singh came to the NDA as a PTO, in very controversial circumstances from the AIPT, Pune, following an equally embarrassing inquiry involving the commandant of the AIPT and some other officers, wherein he was the complainant against his own commandant and others on frivolous matters. The case was closed, without anything substantially wrong getting established and the officer posted out from the institution.  AK Singh’s report from his Initiating Officer, against whom he had in a spell of Dutch courage and false bravado made a report against; was rendered lukewarm because of his suspect integrity. This, made him into an ideal bait to be exploited and used, to further the perverse interests of whosoever is at the fount of this scam; in a probable quid pro quo - of unethically acquired lucre for someone, in return for a thumping and outstanding report, to compensate and undo the damage suffered at the hands of his previous commandant in the AIPT. A K Singh smelled the opportunity, ingratiated himself through the staff officer to the commandant NDA, and emerged as the prime candidate to be assigned the responsibility to become the Presiding Officer of the now infamous BOO.  All else apart, I had not known A K Singh to be a corrupt officer who looted public and regimental funds/property like many others from the APTC, but yes his propensity to somehow or the other, attain his next rank and look after his self interests at the cost of his organizational obligations, was always a dangerous tendency, which was hardwired into his psyche.  And, it is this, which probably made him succumb to do something as stupid and venal as what he has, by taking the signatures of the shortlisted candidates, on the basis of the money paid beforehand, and then subsequently filling up the answer sheet with the correct answers; to make the selection look genuine and proper.

What gets my goat in the entire episode of this sordid happening is the use to which senior and corrupt officers put their subordinates through, for their own vested and murky interests. And, the subordinates willing to sell their soul to the devil, for a puny gain of some additional adulterated metal on their shoulders. Where are we headed for? This has been the story with many others too, where the subordinate either encouraged his wife to befriend his superior and encouraged her to have an illicit relationship with him, for the sake of a better grading or a report; the subordinate officer became the handmaiden of the superior to acquire ill gotten money or else indulge in various low down and grotesque acts by proxy – for the ultimate benefits to accrue to the faceless superior. But, with a motive to ingratiate oneself to ones superior, for a better report – the gateway to becoming a free loader and a wimp. The top leadership is thus in a win - win situation, of pocketing the ill gotten wealth as also being away from the scene of the act, only because there are enough subordinate officers who are willing to be inveigled into committing theft, larceny, loot et al for the superior, who wields the pen.  Is this the type of leadership that, the Army is aspiring for? It’s a shame, by any measure or yardstick. And, for this to have happened in a pre training establishment, is all the more reprehensible; where young minds start their day by everyday reciting the non sectarian prayer, wherein they invoke the grace of the almighty GOD to help them to practice the ‘harder right than the easier wrong’. Could there be a greater travesty being enacted and accomplished in the CRADLE FOR LEADERSHIP. Major General (retd) Gagan Deep Bakshi, I am not willing to believe you when you defend the corrupt and the arrogant in the Army, by always finding an escape route for yourself from a vulnerable situation, during a debate on the sliding standards of probity and rectitude in the Armed Forces, by becoming patronising towards the anchor and sermonising him on how the day starts for a cadet in the NDA, by reciting the PRAYER of, truth, courage and values.

When the guardians and custodians start eroding the value system themselves, just akin to the fence which grows and eats into the lawn, what will be the credibility of an officer and a  leader, who commands and leads, not by example but by the positional authority vested in him by the Rashtrapati. The making of a revolt or else a mutiny in the rank and files of the Army, is not a distant possibility. Beware!

Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal

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