New Delhi: The government Wednesday denied the army was planning a coup in January this year and termed the media reports in this regard as baseless and alarmist.
The Indian Express Wednesday reported that two key army units were moved towards the Indian capital on the night of January 16, which also happened to be the day General V.K Singh became the first Army chief to drag the government to the Supreme Court over this date of birth controversy. The two units had reached on Delhi's outskirts without government's knowledge, before being asked to return to barracks.
"Well, the defence ministry has clarified the position. These are alarmist reports. These should not be taken at face value," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.
Defence Minister A.K. Antony also denied the report terming it as baseless and adding there was no doubt about patriotism of the armed forces.
General Singh slated to demit the office upon his retirement on May 31 has been in the eye of several controversies of late, including his allegation about attempted bribery to clear purchase of substandard vehicles for army's use and leak of his March 16 letter to Prime Minister Singh highlighting pathetic defence preparedness to face any enemy attack.
The government has since been giving a clean chit to the Army chief.
"The army chief's office is an exalted office. All of us have an obligation to do nothing that lowers its dignity," the statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office quoted him as saying.
The Indian Army also rubbished the report saying the movement of army troops was routine. "Routine training at the formation level is carried out to check mobilisation according to standard operating procedure. Almost all army units carry out this procedure at regular intervals. Once effectiveness is checked, the troops are called back. In this case too the troops were called back according to sop. In case of adverse weather conditions like fog we need to test our mobilisation effectiveness," the army clarified.
