Congress 'divided' as Tewari revives troop movement row

Party leader P C Chacko trashes Tewari's statement, calls it unfortunate; Mani Shankar Aiyar backs Tewari

The Congress Party on Sunday looked a divided house over former information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari's assertion that Indian Express story on troop movement was 'unfortunate but true'.

Trashing the claim made by his party colleague Tewari, Congress leader P C Chacko said it is unfortunate that such statements are coming to create unnecessary controversies.

"This report, which has appeared in the Indian Express in the past, has been denied officially by authenticated sources. The fact that some private information passed on to Mr Tewari by some officials is what was quoted. If this newspaper report is an indication then I think there is no reason for even Mr Tewari to believe that it was true," Chacko told ANI here.

 

"And we on behalf of the Congress Party very clearly and categorically deny this report. There was no such troop moment without information of the government," he added.

Chacko further said there is nothing to substantiate this report.

"Private sources or any officers personal opinion privately leaked to somebody cannot be verified or cannot be taken as true. So, this is denied by the government sources. So, I do not believe that this report is at all true," he added.

Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, however, backed Tewari's troop movement claim.

"It appears, something did happen that night which was against the Constitution and democracy," he said.

Tewari had yesterday brushed aside allegations that the news item published on April 4, 2012 was fake.

"At that time, I used to serve in the standing committee of defence. And it is unfortunate, but the story was true. The story was correct," he said at an event in Delhi.

The Indian Express had on April 4, 2012, reported that late on the night of January 16, 2012 (the day then Army Chief General V K Singh approached the Supreme Court on his date of birth issue), central intelligence agencies reported an unexpected (and non-notified) movement by a key military unit from the mechanised infantry based in Hisar (Haryana) as a part of the 33rd Armoured Division (which is a part of 1 Corps, a strike formation based in Mathura and commanded by Lt Gen. A K Singh) in the direction of the capital, 150 km away.