The Congress chief was requested about media protection of points pertaining to defence forces as within the case of the Indian Express report on April 4, 2012, titled “The January night time Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army models moved in the direction of Delhi with out notifying Govt”.
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Former Information and Broadcasting minister and senior Congress leader Manish Tewari today said that he still stands by his 2012 troop movement claim while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress rejected the report by saying that it is not true.
However, the Congress Party appears to be a divided house over Tewari’s assertion that Indian Express story on troop movement was “unfortunate but true”.
Tewari, former Union minister, sparked a fresh row on Saturday after he said that 2012 newspaper report concerning the troop movement towards Delhi without informing the government was true. Tewari was part of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence when the Congress-led central government was notified that two key military units were unexpectedly moving towards the national capital without any notification.
Manish Tewari is “neither the authorised spokesperson nor was he a part of the Cabinet Committee on Security”, Party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said on Sunday.
“We don’t know the motive, but the fact is such distrust did come up”, he added.
The Congress, meanwhile, not only distanced itself from Tewari’s statement, but advised the party leader not to make comments on the issue.
“He has no work these days”.
“I am again clarifying there is absolutely no truth in it (claims about troop movement in 2012)”, he said. Story was correct…I am not getting into an argument.
The government feared for 18 hours starting from the night of January 16, for possible action by soldiers supporting Army Chief V.K. Singh, who had moved to Apex Court seeking a revision of his date of birth issue.
“It was inappropriate, unnecessary & completely wrong to suggest that there was any truth in those allegations when made”, Singhvi told mediapersons.
The then Defence Minister A K Antony too downplayed Tewari’s comments.
“We were told that such army movements keep happening”.
“I don’t know from where he (Tewari) got this dream”.
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Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who was also then a member of the Standing Committee on Defence, said on Sunday that there was no such discussion ever in the panel on the issue.
