Dalbir Suhag appointment row: Former Army Chief, MoS VK Singh snubbed

New Delhi: The BJP-led NDA government on Wednesday fully backed the appointment of Army vice-chief Lt. Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag as the next Army Chief, virtually snubbing former Army Chief Gen. V.K. Singh (Retd), now minister of state in-charge of the development of the northeastern region.

Defence minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament that the Army and its appointments must be kept out of the realm of politics, and added: “The appointment is final, and the government fully stands by it.”

Mr Jaitley’s statement came after Gen. (Retd) Singh launched an indirect verbal attack on Lt. Gen. Suhag by tweeting on Tuesday that “if a unit kills innocents, does dacoity and then the head of organisation tries to protect them, should he not be blamed? Criminals should go free!!”