The BJP on Wednesday questioned whether Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was behind planting the Army coup story in 2012 even as it sought the Standing Committee on Defence to take note of “fresh reports” on the alleged episode.
Taking a serious note of what he described “new revelations” on the alleged coup attempt in 2012, BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao said he has raised the issue with the Standing committee chairman Kalraj Mishra who is also a Union Minister and a senor BJP leader.
“I am a member of Parliamentary Committee on Defence and (this fresh report) is a matter of great concern and I have raised the issue with our chairman and requested him that we should find answers to these questions,” Rao told newspersons here.
The BJP’s Rajya Sbha member claimed that four of Narsimha Rao Government’s Cabinet Ministers were in the know of things and one of them had leaked the report to a section of the press. He sought the name of the Minister who had leaked the information to the media.
The report in a national English daily on April 12, 2012, had claimed that the “alarm’ was raised in January 16, 2013. The lead story of the daily suggested an attempt of coup by the Army. The report then alluded that an entire unit of infantry based in Hisar (Haryana) had started moving towards Delhi while a section from Agra also moved towards Palam.
The BJP leader was reacting after ‘fresh report’ in an English Weekly ‘Sunday Guardian’, this month, alleged that the UPA dispensation under Manmohan Sigh had asked Intelligence Bureau to establish that the then army Chief Gen. V K Singh (now a Minister in the Modi-Government) was attempting a coup against the Government.
“The top leadership of the UPA 2 government, in the last few months of 2011 and early 2012, had informally indicated to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to try and establish that the Army, under its chief, General VK Singh, was attempting a coup to topple the Government. This was at a time when the UPA 2 Government was reeling under charges of immense corruption and the Anna Hazare movement was going on. A few months later, despite the IB categorically reporting that there was absolutely no chance that Gen Singh would carry out any coup, this fiction was “leaked” to the media..”, the report of the Weekly alleged.
Rao asked if Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was the ‘brain’ behind these conspiracies, and wondered why UPA ministers spread these ‘lies’ despite the Intelligence Bureau calling any news about these attempts ‘false’.
“This Congress party had not only indulged in loot, but they have also played havoc with national security of this country and played with security,” the BJP spokesperson said.
“This is not just a political conspiracy but also an attempt to defame the Indian army. In January 2012, there were media reports that claimed that the Indian Army was staging a coup against the then-Manmohan Singh Government. The stories were planted by senior leaders of the Congress party, including certain Cabinet Ministers. This was a manufactured coup. Based on the information that was given to him, the then-Prime Minister asked the IB to present facts on the rumour. Even after the IB had cleared the rumours, the UPA still planted the story in media that attempted to malign the Indian Army,” he said.
Reacting to the charges, ex-Defence Minister and senior Congress leader A K Antony said in a brief reply, “As Defence Minister at that time, there were lot of questions in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. I had given detailed answers. Please go through Parliament website, you’ll get the answer I had given,”