On January 16, 2012 afternoon the Cabinet Committee on Security under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and comprising among others defence minister AK Antony and finance mister Pranab Mukherjee met aimlessly for several tense hours. The Intelligence Bureau and other sources were filling them on the 'unauthorised' movement of army troops towards the national capital, coinciding with army chief General VK Singh's decision to move the Supreme Court over his age issue.

At the meeting, and in consultations in the days before and after Gen Singh's audacious and possibly trivial legal challenge, there was an overwhelming opinion among senior members of Manmohan Singh cabinet and most political leaders to sack Gen Singh. It was Antony who stood in the way of the unceremonious exit of the Army Chief. The defence minister was determined that UPA should not earn the bad name of sacking a military chief, like the NDA government over a decade ago when it dismissed navy chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat in December 1998.

However, a little over two years later, and weeks away from demitting office as India's longest serving defence minister, Antony promptly accepted the resignation of navy chief Admiral DK Joshi without putting up the kind of resistance that he showed in the case of General Singh.

Alacrity shown by the government to accept Admiral Joshi's resignation marks Antony's own journey as a defence minister—from a minister who blindly stood by military chiefs to a man circumspect about many of their claims. Importantly, it also raises the question if the quick acceptance was partially prompted by the fact that a beleaguered UPA couldn't afford another round of political mudslinging over a string of naval accidents.


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