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

that there was zero chance of a coup”, the official who was involved in the thick of the matter, recalled.

However, later, in April 2012, an English newspaper carried a report about the suspected coup attempt, which was allegedly tried on 16 January, on the same day V.K. Singh had approached the Supreme Court on the issue of his date of birth. As per this media report, one “sizeable” unit from the mechanised infantry based in Hisar (Haryana) with its “Russian-made Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFVS) carried on 48 tank transporters” and a “large element” of the airborne 50 Para Brigade, which is based in Agra, had started moving towards Delhi without any authorisation from the Ministry of Defence.

“No coup attempt was undertaken. The incidents and military movements that were termed as a part of a coup attempt, were normal military exercises. We had categorically told the Prime Minister, after carrying out our probe, that nothing of this sort (Army backed coup) was going to happen. But it is true that the PM had come under pressure and had started believing that he might be toppled, considering the anger of the people and the corruption taint that had come to be associated with the UPA. Later, we came to know that four senior ministers from his Cabinet briefed the media about this attempted coup that never was attempted in the first place,” another official stated.

V.K. Singh served as the Army chief from March 2010 before retiring in May 2012, rather than being singed by the high level effort to falsely accuse him of plotting a coup against the Manmohan Singh government.

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