The letter written by Army chief V K Singh to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the poor state of India?s defence preparedness and leaked to the media created an uproar in Parliament on Wednesday, with several political parties calling for the chief?s sacking. After the adjournment of both the Houses of Parliament, the question still remained whether the government would in fact consider sacking Singh.

Allies of the government, the Samajwadi Party and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) called for Singh’s scaking for the alleged leak of the letter to media. Ram Gopal Yadav of the SP and Tariq Anwar of the NCP said that airing of sensitive information in public was shameful.

The principal opposition party, the BJP declared that it was not for sacking. ?We are not demanding that he be sacked,? said leader of the opposition Sushma Swaraj. But senior BJP leaders also said that if the government does consider sacking the Army chief, ?we will not behave the way senior Congressmen behaved when Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat was sacked.?

?The events as they happened show that the equilibrium between the army chief and the government has been disturbed. The revelations of the letter are alarming, if true,? said Ravi Shankar Prasad, party spokesperson.

In all of this the attitude of the Congress and defense minister A K Antony remained cautious. While minister for overseas Indian affairs, Vayalar Ravi had termed the leak of the letter as ?actions of a frustrated man? defense minister A K Antony, in a statement in the Rajya Sabha confirmed that the Army Chief had written to the Prime Minister on March 12 drawing his “attention to issues related to national defence and security.?

He said ?these issues are under the consideration of the ministry of defence. By very nature of these issues, they cannot be a matter of public debate.? Sources in the government said that Antony was reluctant to sack the army chief as the issue on which the letter was written was sensitive and ?nobody can prove one hundred per cent that the letter was leaked by the Army chief.?

?The army chief has a month and half left of his tenure, we would prefer to ride it out,? said a senior government minister.