Army tried to topple Rajiv Gandhi government: Retd Lt General

New Delhi: Lt Gen. P.N. Hoon, a former Army commander of the prestigious Western Command, has made explosive revelations in his recently released book 'The Untold Truth' that a plot was hatched by the Army to topple the Rajiv Gandhi government in the late 1980s.

Three crack para-commando battalions, including one from the Western Command, were mobilised to move for action in Delhi.

In Chapter 10, titled Giani Zail Singh vs Rajiv Gandhi in his just-released book, Lt Gen. Hoon mentions that the plan for a coup was hatched at the behest of certain very senior politicians who did not share cordial relations with Rajiv.

The 86-year-old Hoon has claimed that the then Army chief, Gen. Krishnaswami Sundarji, and vice chief of Army, Lt Gen. S.F. Rodrigues, were involved in the plot.

Lt Gen. Hoon has claimed that as chief of the Western Command in May-June 1987, he got a message that a letter had been received at command headquarters from army HQ seeking three para-commando battalions to be placed under Lt Gen. Rodrigues. The battalions included the First-Para Commando (under the Western Command) and the 9th and 10th Para Commando which were under the Northern and Southern Commands.

Lt Gen. Hoon said he immediately briefed Mr Rajiv Gandhi and his principal secretary Gopi Arora about the development and showed them the letter demanding special forces as evidence and Mr V.C. Shukla, who a cabinet minister in Congress-led government, was aware of this possible Army action.

The then President Giani Zail Singh, who was scared that the action against the government could transfer the power to the armed forces, didn’t pursue his plan, Lt Gen. Hoon has claimed in the book.