Initially there was the controversy regarding the General's age and year of birth with two wings of the Army maintaining two different dates. The General wanted the date of birth to be set right as per his matriculation certificate whereas the Ministry of Defence wanted the records as per his UPSC application at the time of IMA entrance as the official date of birth. The General challenged this in Supreme Court and there were talks of rappochment between the General and MoD. It took the wisdom of the SupremeCourt judges to make the General withdraw his petition failng which it was to be dismissed. MoD officials were perturbed by the groundswell of symapthy of the General.

the General with hardly few days left for hanging his boots, fired a salvo accusing a former Lt.General of offering him bribes to clear a truck deal which he felt was sub standard and overpriced.  General also informed in his newspaper interview that he had informed the Defence Minister about the offer of bribe. This happened about 2 years ago. Some saw this as a sinister campaign by the General to pay back the MoD. He should have got the man who dared to offer him bribe arrested. But instead he chose to keep silent for two years. Expectedly this opened up a pandora's box.

Defence, Space Science and Science and technology are ministries falling outside the purview of legitimate audit processes and criticism for it amounts to betrayal of the nation so was the feeling. We heard about an impending scam in allocation of S band spectrum literally for free in the devas multimedia vs Antrix agreement. The deal was called off and former ISRO men - three of them including Dr Madhavan Nair were proscribed from holding positions of power within the ministry as a reprimand. The colluders in PMO were left out not even with a warning with the result one scientist Dr.Radom Narasimha putting in his papers.

During NDA regime, we had coffin gate, Bangaru laxman getting caught on camera,Jaya Jaitely offering to facilitate an arms deal- all came to light - despite the fact the then Defence Minister George Fernandez had an impeccable personal record. This means that MoD is full of middlemen most often ex bureactrats and ex men in uniform who espouse the cause of arm makers and dealers for a fee. The fear of scandals slowed down arms procurement on a large scale resulting in another bombshell - General Singh writing a letter to PM on our defence preparedness or the lack of it which letter was leaked to the media to emabarass the government. the culprit is yet tobe identified but there are howls of protest against General with some demanding marching orders begiven to him.

In all these episodes, UPA-II has come a cropper as a collosal failure to administer. If Dr Singh leads the pack of incompetent Ministers, Antony follows him closely . PM has his own cronies and sympathisers to always defend him poor Antony may not have anyone. It is high time he puts in his papers and take a sojourn in the backwaters of Kerala for some time or better still call it quits from active politics. With Karunakaran no more around to throw tantrums, Antony may find it difficult to assert his authority anymore.