india

Updated: Feb 07, 2019 08:20 IST

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 Manmohan 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.

The BJP also took to Twitter to target Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

“Plotting a coup is 1st order treason. But the Congress had no qualms taking this route to gratify its perpetual hunger for power! Was it authorized by then party VP @RahulGandhi? On whose behest was he acting? We demand an answer,” the BJP tweeted.