‘UPA-2 TOP LEADERS WANTED COUP ATTEMPT BY ARMY PROVED’

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 V.K. 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, which carried the story as was narrated to it by the political leadership, which also included a leader who occupied a top Constitutional post later in his career. General Singh was the first serving military chief to have taken the Union government to court.

Intelligence agency based sources, who were in the heart of the development, told The Sunday Guardian that the then Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh was led to believe by a section of the UPA, including some of his most senior ministers, that a sentiment was building up in the country which would culminate in the toppling of his government.

“A worried Manmohan Singh took this fictitious threat seriously and asked the IB to look into it. The IB, after doing the inquiry, got back stating that there was no chance of a coup as no Army chief, anywhere, could think of staging a coup if he did not have the support of his top officers. The report was shared with the PM and there was no ambiguity regarding the IB’S report