In his autobiography Courage and Convictions, the former chief said he had briefed the Prime Minister about his visit to Myanmar and told him ‘in no uncertain terms as to what was happening or rather, what was not happening’.
‘The Prime Minister listened most carefully and said in a resigned manner that ‘General saab, ab yeh to procedural problems hain’ (these are procedural problems). We are trying. How many times I had heard this before. I lost count years ago. Here was the Prime Minister of India, expressing his helplessness in matters that should have been trivial,’ the former chief says in the book.
Giving details of his visit to Myanmar, he said the issues were related to handing over of road rollers to the Myanmar government for building roads there for which the expenditure was not more than Rs 20 crore. Gen Singh said despite the ‘Look East Policy’ propagated by the Prime Minister, for 15 years, the oil exploration offered by Myanmar was ‘lying in someone’s pending tray’.
‘The Prime Minister listened most carefully and said in a resigned manner that ‘General saab, ab yeh to procedural problems hain’ (these are procedural problems). We are trying. How many times I had heard this before. I lost count years ago. Here was the Prime Minister of India, expressing his helplessness in matters that should have been trivial,’ the former chief says in the book.
Giving details of his visit to Myanmar, he said the issues were related to handing over of road rollers to the Myanmar government for building roads there for which the expenditure was not more than Rs 20 crore. Gen Singh said despite the ‘Look East Policy’ propagated by the Prime Minister, for 15 years, the oil exploration offered by Myanmar was ‘lying in someone’s pending tray’.