According to a report on The Sunday Guardian, top leaders in UPA-2 wanted the Intelligence Bureau to prove the ‘coup attempt’ by the Army and eventually planted a news report in the media.
The report states, “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 then chief, General V.K. Singh, was attempting a coup to topple the government.” When the IB reported that there was no way V.K. 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”, the media outlet reported.
An IB officer involved in the “thick of the matter” was quoted as saying “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 that there was zero chance of a coup”.
“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 officer was quoted as saying.
The BJP attacked the Congress over the report on social media and tweeted, “Plotting a coup is 1st order treason. But the Congress had no qualms taking this route to gratify its perpetual hunger for power!” It was also insinuated that then Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi orchestrated the entire series of events.
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! https://t.co/1LMS8nIn6I
— BJP (@BJP4India) February 6, 2019
In a press conference, BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao launched a scathing attack on the Congress party. He called it a “manufactured coup” and a ‘plot” to defame the Indian Army’. He also called it a “serious attempt” at trying to subvert the Indian Army.
Rao claimed it was a conspiracy to equate the Indian army with the “coup-happy Pakistan Army” and asked if ISI had anything to do with it.
#FakeCoupClaim | We also ask if there was any hand of the Pakistan ISI in this because we know their track-record. Or was this attempt to malign the Indian Army and an attempt to equalise it with the coup-happy Pakistan Army?: GVL Narasimha Rao, BJP https://t.co/LGCyJUWcLF
— Republic (@republic) February 6, 2019
He also demanded from Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party. He said, “We demand answers from the Congress. They claim to have respect for the Indian Army but they abuse the Army and the Army chief now and then. This needs an answer from Rahul Gandhi.”
