The spat between Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor and Lt General H S Panag, until recently the Northern Army Commander, had to be resolved in the office of the Defence Minister. The powers that be in South Block finally backed Kapoor and leaned on Panag to accept the transfer to Central Command, orders for which were issued last week. But having done that, Minister A K Antony, who was uncomfortable from the start about the pressure being exerted by Kapoor throughout the episode, had a polite message passed on to the Army Chief: this has happened once but should not repeat itself. In other words, the Army Chief was told that he should not expect the Ministry to back him at all times, and that it was important for him to resolve issues at his level, rather than allow them to escalate to higher levels.
