Patna/New Delhi: A fresh controversy has erupted over the movement of two Army units near Delhi in 2012 with the then DGMO Lt Gen A K Choudhary stating on Friday that there may have been “distrust” between the Army and government on the issue then but rubbished talk of a coup threat.
“The possibility of a coup was unimaginable,” he told reporters in Patna. “There was misconception or there was perceptional difference or there may be distrust,” Choudhary said, adding that the then Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma had asked him to send the troops back as the government at the highest level was “worried” over its movement.
When asked about this, National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon said there was no distrust between the Army and government. “I don’t see there is distrust. How can I comment on something that I don’t see. Because I am a civilian, I work very closely with the Army everyday. I don’t see that,” he said in Delhi. BJP voiced serious concern over Choudhary’s remarks. Senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said though the government lacks trust deficit in all sectors, the distrust with the army was never comprehended.
“The distrust between the government and the army is a matter of serious concern. Army protects the nation and assures to protects its citizens. If this type of reports come, it is a matter of serious concern,” he told reporters outside Parliament.
Choudhary said the movement of the troops was a “normal” exercise and the government immediately “understood” after he explained the matter to them. “But before that either there was misconception… or may be distrust.” Asked by reporters whether there was any confusion in the government then over the troop movement, he shot back, “You ask them (Government)”. Pressed further whether alarm bells had rung in the government over the issue, he said, “I won’t say they were alarmed or not alarmed”. He said there was daily interaction between the Government and the Army Headquarters and if at all there was any confusion then, they could have sought clarification in such meetings. Choudhary said the government did get “a little excited” which was “uncalled for”. “I was only thinking that if there were inputs of this nature they (government) had thought about they should have called us up and asked us for clarification. It would have finished at that point of time only.”
When Sharma sought an explanation from him on the troop movement, he told him that this is a “normal routine” exercise and “you need not worry about it at all and they understood it”.
The then Army Chief Gen V K Singh, whose relations with the government soured over the controversy on his date of birth, said Choudhary’s comments only confirmed the hand of a senior bureaucrat linked to a Chandigarh think tank in raking it up. “It confirms who cooked up routine move to denigrate Army,” he wrote on his twitter post.
The then DGMO said it would be wrong to link the troop movement with Gen Singh’s decision to drag government to the Supreme Court over his date of birth row as such exercises are planned long in advance. He, however, felt the troop movement could have been avoided then as it coincided with the Gen Singh deciding to move the apex court. (PTI)
