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New Delhi: "Ridiculous," "irresponsible", "contemptible" and "mischief" were
the common refrain of several former armed forces chiefs, senior
officials and strategic analysts on the sensational media report
here Wednesday suggesting that there was an army coup bid based on
movement of two key battalions to the national capital in January.
First to call it "ridiculous" was former army chief General Ved
Prakash Malik, who headed the 1.13-million strong world's second
largest standing army during the 1999 Kargil war with Pakistan.
"I think it is a ridiculous report and that's all that I can say,"
Malik told IANS over the phone from his Panchkula residence near
Chandigarh.
The Indian Express, in a front page report Wednesday, said the
Hisar-based Mechanised Infantry unit and elements from the
airborne 50 Para Brigade in Agra moved towards the capital on the
night of Jan 16, without following the standard operating
procedure of informing the defence ministry in advance.
The report said since this happened around the time when Gen.
Singh was waging a judicial battle against the government over his
age row, it created unease and suspicion in Delhi. But the paper
left it short of calling it a coup bid.
"It (the report) seems like somebody's mischief," Malik said,
adding that he "can't keep guessing" who was playing the mischief
or why it was being played.
He, however, believes that the troop movement was a routine
training exercise and there was no need for notifying the defence
ministry on such minor movement of units.
His sentiment was shared by a former defence secretary who is
regarded quite well by the government for his experience and
knowledge on matters of military.
"We have to see the basics of the report. The inferences drawn
from it seem ridiculous. That's about it," said the former
bureaucrat who did not want to be identified.
"Knowledgeable people will never give credence to such kind of
inferences. There is not a lot to be said on this. I do not see
any logic in the report... for people in the armed forces would
never even dream of making such an attempt," he said.
The most stinging criticism of the report already dubbed
"alarmist" by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and "baseless" by
Defence Minister A.K. Antony came from former Indian Navy chief
Admiral Arun Prakash.
"It is a very irresponsible piece of journalism by a senior
editor, especially at a juncture when the situation is tense and
uncertain. I am wondering what purposes does this report serve. It
is a very contemptible piece of writing," Prakash told IANS over
phone from Goa.
Asked what he thought of the army units moving towards Delhi
without notice, Prakash said units have their own training
schedules and there was no need to notify movements of such small
units to anybody except the army formations and the headquarters.
"This is about the Indian Army and not the Pakistan Army, right?
Should we be worrying about Indian Army units moving within the
country?" he asked.
Former Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi though
acknowledged that the media report was correct to the extent that
there were indeed some army unit movements.
However, the report is "incorrect as far as the nefarious purposes
of the army units' movement is concerned", Tyagi told IANS here.
"My God, it is so ridiculous that I even hate to talk about it.
These kind of army unit movements will continue as long as the
nation has an army. But two and two do not make an eight. The
army, the defence secretary, the defence minister and the prime
minister say the report is bunkum. Who else needs to say that?" he
said.
"By claiming that defence secretary (Shashi Kant Sharma) cut short
his Malaysia visit and returned to Delhi due to these army units'
movement is like claiming two and two is now sixteen," he said.
Tyagi said he understands well that journalists see stories in
everything. "They got their story right as far as the movements of
units are concerned, but this inference from those movements is
surely in doubt," he added.
Former Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) director
C. Uday Bhaskar, a reputed strategic analyst, said he was
"intrigued, disappointed and very concerned" at the way the report
had presented the army movement.
"The nuance and innuendoes, as though there was an attempted coup
or there was any sort of an intimidation, is invalid," Bhaskar
said.
Noting that it was a matter of national security, the former navy
officer said the report's technical details of just two battalions
moving was "just not backing" the suggestion of a coup attempt.
"Already, the civilian-military relations need a lot of repair.
Indian military is the most professional and apolitical force in
the world and the report doesn't do any good to the Indian media's
credibility," he said.
(N.C. Bipindra can be contacted at nc.bipindra@ians.in)
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