Manish Tewari rakes up '2012 troop movement', Cong maintains distance

New Delhi: 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.

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, Congress leader P. C. Chacko said.

"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 said.

"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.

Reviving the 2012 troop movement controversy, Congress leader Manish Tewari had said on Saturday that a media report about two key army units moving towards Delhi without notifying the then UPA government was "unfortunate but true".

Union minister and former Army Chief V K Singh, who had in 2012 dismissed the report, today slammed the Congress leader for his remark, saying "He (Tewari) has no work these days."

Replying to a question at a book release function here yesterday, Tewari, who was Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting in UPA government between October 2012 and May 2014, said, "At that point of time I used to serve in the Standing Committee on Defence. And it's unfortunate but the story was true. Story was correct".

"I am not getting into an argument. All I am saying is that to the best of my knowledge that story was correct," he said.

The Congress leader was asked about media coverage of issues pertaining to defence forces as in the case of the Indian Express report on April 4, 2012, titled "The January night Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army units moved towards Delhi without notifying Govt."

The newspaper had reported that late on the night of January 16, 2012 (the day then Army Chief 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 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.

Singh said Tewari should be told to read his book which talks about the issue.

"He should be told to read my book, which reveals all (about the whole issue)," he said.

According to The Indian Express report, central intelligence agencies had reported that on the night of January 16, there was an unexpected - and non-notified - movement by a key military unit from the mechanised infantry based in Hisar in the direction of the capital.

On the same night, another unit - identified as a large element of the 50th Para Brigade based at Agra - had also been moved towards Delhi, according to the newspaper report.

The alleged movement took place at a time when Singh was locked in a confrontation with the government in a row over his age.