PTI NEW DELHI WITH Army Chief Gen V K Singh dragging the government to Supreme Court over his age issue, defence minister A K Antony on Tuesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the matter.

It was not clear as to what exactly transpired at the meeting, sources said.

The meeting came a day after Gen Singh filed a writ petition in the apex court challenging the defence ministry’s rejection of his contention that his date of birth should be May 10,1951 and not May 10,1950 as fixed.

As per the government’s decision, Gen Singh will retire on May 31 this year. Defence secretary Shashikant Sharma, who was in Malaysia on a visit, was also called back in view of the development related to Army Chief’s action.

Meanwhile, BJP on Tuesday attacked the government for its “failure” in handling the age matter of Army Chief Gen V K Singh, who has dragged the government to the Supreme Court on the issue.

“The government of India has displayed a serious failure of statecraft in the handling of the age related matter of the Army Chief,” said BJP’s chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad. He said, “The Army is a very important institution of India about which the entire country is proud. This sensitive matter ought to have been handled properly by the government internally, to the satisfaction of all concerned, instead of allowing it to come in public domain and resultant court proceedings.” His colleague Rajiv Pratap Rudy said, “It is a complete lack of statecraft of the government.

Shockingly, the issue, which should have been resolved amicably, is calling for a judicial intervention. This is unfortunate and shows a complete erosion of the credibility of the government.” Another party leader Balbir Punj attacked the government for its alleged “inefficient” handling.

“I wish they had paid more attention trying to talk to the General at an appropriate time and there would have been no problem,” he said.