BJP hits out at UPA 2 over media leak of old ‘coup’ story

The stories were planted by senior leaders of the Congress party, including certain Cabinet ministers

GVL NARASIMHA RAO, BJP leader

NEWDELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) on Wednesday launched a frontal assault on the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) 2 government for allegedly leaking to the media an inaccurate story about a coup allegedly being plotted by the army seven years ago, in 2012, citing a report published by The Sunday Guardian.

The party sought to know the identity of the minister who leaked the story. Front-paged by The Indian Express, the so-called coup story related to alleged unusual movement of two army units towards the capital on the intervening night of January 16 and 17.

The coup controversy resurfaced four days after The Sunday Guardian reported that the UPA 2 government’s leadership had in 2011-12 informally asked the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to try and establish if the army, under General VK Singh, was attempting a coup. The story added that despite the IB categorically stating that there was no chance of Gen Singh carrying out a coup, “this fiction was leaked to the media”.

Addressing the media, BJP leader, GVL Narasimha Rao, said the coup story was 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 Manmo- han Singh government. The stories were planted by senior leaders of the Congress party, including certain Cabinet ministers,” Rao said.

Rao, who is also a member of the parliamentary standing committee on defence, said that an emergency meeting of the committee will be convened to investigate people involved and the motive. “Such a false alarm manufactured by an elected government is an attempt to compromise Indian Army and subvert Indian democracy,” Rao said.

Responding to BJP’S allegations, Congress spokesperson Pranav Jha said: “This is a government which is running helterskelter in absence of any real achievement. Faced with a resurgent congress and its leadership , they are resorting to vendetta politics and shoot scoot charges. They are again trying to stoke controversy and draw our forces into it .”