I wish we will not read more of such news, but one can not be sure...

BTW, it appears that Congress is pushing to make 2G family Friend, Sam Pitroda as the next Prez candiate of UPA..

Surely, the senior minister of UPA2 govt should have more reasons to be unhappy...

In this age of supine shivers going down at the sight of few uniforms moving towards Delhi let better let us fix some Norms as to how many Armed personnel can move towards Delhi without seeking permission ?

I think nil will be more reassuring number .

'Senior minister Sutradhar of coup report?

Sources involved in tracking sensitive developments claim that a senior minister of the UPA government was the mastermind of the April 4 front page item in a daily newspaper about a suspected coup attempt. The sources claim that the minister is connected - through his close relative - with the defense procurement lobbies gunning for Chief of Army Staff General V K Singh,and that the decision to "trick the newspaper into running a baseless report was to drain away support for General Singh within the political class",

According to these sources,the minister in question "is well-known to senior journalistic levels of the publication" that ran the coup report. A military source was "surprised that the newspaper in question ran such a story,in view of the high level of competence of its senior staff", but added that " a senior minister being the source of the initial information would explain their belief in the truth of the report". Other military sources warned that the "objective behind the leak was not merely to discredit the Chief but to paralyse the army in its training function". Already, procurements have slowed to dangerous levels because of repeated - and often accurate - claims of graft. Should the military's freedom to undertake routine training exercises of the sort described in the report get curtailed" because of imaginary fears of a coup, "the military would very soon lose its fighting edge". Military sources claim that even some civilian officials "are linked to arms lobbyists and through '

www.sunday-guardian.com/investigation/senior-minister-sutradhar-of-coup-report

MJ Akbar and paper is any day more reliable than Indian Express. Tragedy is that Shekhar Gupta has become a tool in hands of the Arms lobby whose dana pai has been harmed.

Mr Shekhar Gupta :: If you expose the Source who mislead you then it will be great favour to India and the Indians

NATION AT LEAST EXPECTS THIS MUCH FROM FROM YOU NOW sincE you have been used .

Coo Kaabh ,Khan aur Kasie -TV Commentator said !!!

Now the basics :

Can Chief of Army Staff lift a phone and order the Battalion Commander to move his Battalion to Delhi ??

Unheard and never done .

Hissar unit moving on 48 Tatra Trucks with Armaments on the National Highway .How could an Unit moving under the gaze of the General Public escorted by Military Police to clear traffic be on clandestine mission ??

They can't move without informing the Civil Authorities

Will not Battalion Commander inform his Brigade commander who in turn will inform his Divisional Commander who in turn will inform the Core Commander who in turn has to inform DGMO that Chief has ordered the Colonel directly to move one Battalion to Delhi ??

Now will not DGMO inform Delhi Commander who has nearly one Division under his Command that one Battalion is moving to Delhi so that Units in Delhi don't confront the Hissar Battalion and ask :

Aap Agrawale yehan kaya kar rehien hamre area mein ?? Where is the authorization to move into area under our control ??

Naturally Delhi Commander will ask why a Battalion from Hissar whose fighting strength is hardly 400 men are coming to Delhi when Delhi itself has full Division of 15000 fully Armed troops ?? Another Parachute Unit with another 400 persons were involve din this exercise

There are more troops available in Meerut and nearby Cantonments like Alwar,Mathura or even Ambala Cantt .

Any time a dozen units of Army are doing such exercises in the night .They never inform Delhi nor are required to do so .

So where is the coo when the full chain of Command right from Hissar to Delhi would be automatically come to know of decision that C-in C has ordered the Battalion Commander directly ??

And you wake up the Defence Secretary in mid of the night in Singapore to fly back .

Damn it is hilarious ,hilarious and stupid ,stupid .

Shekar Gupta is otherwise an intelligent and well respected Media person.Still taken for a ride at this advance age ??? This proves that :

There is no age bar for any human being to be hoodwinked by the interested parties who in this case are the L oboists whose interests have been very badly damaged aur Dana Pani ko nuksan hua hein by the cleanliness drive of General V K SINGH .

And then there are those barren cows who always bray for any action of the Chief be linked to his Age issue .These poor cows are belching and producing gobbar gases as they are unable to digest the fodder supplied by the scamesters.

Shekhar Gupta : COO Kabh ,KHAN AUR KAISE ???

Looks like the defense procurement scam is much more serious than it appears. If Bofors scam (paltry 60 odd crore kickback) could bring down Rajiv Gandhi government, this has potential to sink THE FAMILY for good. If Gupta succeeds in diverting attention away from this, he can sleep peacefully dreaming of an 'assured gift' of a Padma award.

strictest action must be taken against IE publication and shekhar gupta, reports are coming in that this was a planted news.

will mr katju do some real work finally or we are going to see another congress pawn?

someone said army rule is better than mms? well if congress comes next time, common men will have no other option to say.

Military coup is better than a dumb Prime Minister we have.

 what is going in this country.Media has no code of conduct they are pulishing silly report only to increase their ciculation.There is no possibility of coup in this country .Our democracy is deep rooted althogh there is some shortcomings.Indian Express has done blunder and they have misused the power of media.

Anwaar,

Irretrievably tarnished? I doubt it.

Ask any army officer of your acquaintance. For that matter, ask any young officer whether he has heard of FM Maneckshaw. Then ask the same officer if he has heard of lt Gen Jacob.

PS. I knew Gen Jacob when he was an instructor at the staff college and Sam Maneckshaw was the Commandant or had just left to resurrect IV Corps after another 'sarkari' general had ruined it. I can't remember him having displayed these obsessions that he was running the show and telling everyone what to do. Incidentally, Jacob's partner in arms in maligning Sam is the son of the General who presided over the 1962 debacle.
 

These dim witted rascals whose sole purpose is to survive on the crumbs thrown by the dynasty do not realize that with each such dirty tactic, they are, in fact, raising the stature of the Army chief. There could have been some doubts about his intentions early on, but now, it's becoming clear as daylight that the honest man is being dragged into the mud for his courage and probity. The paid khandani chamchas of congress first accused him of leaking the letter. Now it comes out that it was not the Army chief who did that. But even then you see these donkeys braying endlessly about the general washing the dirty linen in the public.

Shekhar Gupta now claims that at the time of Anna movement, Anna was the establishment! Such parasites who masquerade as intellectuals. Shame on you!

>> "For 60 years the army has kept quiet and the public at large couldn't give a s**t. Quite normal for a country which has always had an all volunteer force." - Bonita

So true. The swindling going on in the defence deals was always an open secret. The defence forces that have remained ABSOLUTELY secular and caste-agnostic in a country as divided as ours speaks volumes about this institution. It is shameful that the politicians and babudom cannot keep their evil gaze away from it.

I must also commend (and thank you) on some very informative posts/info that I was previously unaware of.

Bonita,

>> The atmosphere of distrust has always existed.

But now it is public.

>> why is the dirty linen there in the first place and in whose interest is it to keep it hidden?

As Gen. Jacob said, "It should never have spilled into the public. This is not a matter for the public domain." Bringing it up after losing face in SC and waiting till one month before exiting from the army should raise some questions.

>>  . Gen Jacob has irretrievably tarnished his reputation.

Irretrievably tarnished? I doubt it.

>>  whether the government spooked as claimed by Shekhar Gupta and the IE.

I agree. IE erred.

Anwaar,

You are entitled to your opinion, but you need to consider the following.

atmosphere of distrust created by Gen V K Singh's washing dirty linen in public.

1. The atmosphere of distrust has always existed. Every attempt to downgrade and belittle the armed forces derives from this distrust. For 60 years the army has kept quiet and the public at large couldn't give a s**t. Quite normal for a country which has always had an all volunteer force.

2. Washing dirty linen in public is now the order of the day with RTI and all that. Anyway, why is the dirty linen there in the first place and in whose interest is it to keep it hidden? Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

As Lieutenant General (retd) JFR Jacob said in IE

Wrong person to quote. Gen Jacob has irretrievably tarnished his reputation by publicly running down his superior officers (FM Maneckshaw and Lt gen JS Arora) in public and trying to claim credit for the 1971 victory in Bangladesh. Field Marshal Maneckshaw will still be revered in military circles long after people say "Gen Jacob - who?".

The core issue in the story is whether the government spooked as claimed by Shekhar Gupta and the IE. I have already explained what such willingness to be spooked implies. To summarise, if a routine troop movement of less than a thousand soldiers caused alarm bells to ring, then it displays the paranoia of ill informed, insecure individuals in positions of power. When one is devious, one suspects everyone else of the same fault. When has given cause to fear retribution then one believes that it is on its way.

Since Shekhar Gupta stands by his story, he would do well to name the individuals whom he claims were "spooked".

All said and done IE & at times The Hindu are still the most readable paper among TOI, HT, et el....Nowhere the COUP word was mentioned. All it said was that there is an ever widening gap between military and Govt and that is a caus efor concern. 2000 odd troops do notlead to a coup. Delihi region already has 20000 militarymen deployed. SO no need to mobilise from outside for a COUP.

All the readers who are paranoid, need to READ the IE report. Now start the abuse! 

Guptaji's newspaper IE is not popular anymore. He needed some attention and fair enough he was hogging the limelight all day long on all national channels. Wonder he has a halicopter, amazing how he managed to cover 4 channels in one evening.

Guptaji is much pissed off by twitter, where is known as 'Kala Kutta, which he himself said on Star News. Shri Guptaji was talking as if he was giving lesson on journalism as he was looking rather sheepish.

>> "The entire episode is an outgrowth of the atmosphere of distrust created by Gen V K Singh's washing dirty linen in public. " - Anwaar

The sickulars must acknowledge that they do not have the sole right to wash dirty linen in public. The General spent enough time banging his head against the babudom, led by a honest-but-mum minister. He escalated issues only after he ran out of options.

The Congress lackeys are frustrated that they cannot find much muck to throw at their "adversaries" like Anna, Bhushans, CAG and the General. So, the Congress have activated their dirty tricks department again.

Bonita,

>> The entire episode is not just a smear campaign against Gen VK Singh, but an insult to the Indian Army.

The entire episode is an outgrowth of the atmosphere of distrust created by Gen V K Singh's washing dirty linen in public. As Lieutenant General (retd) JFR Jacob said in IE, "It should never have spilled into the public. This is not a matter for the public domain. It was between the army and the ministry and the babus. And it should be sorted out between them."

Saxena,

>> There was a joint conspiracy hatched by the Defence bureaucracy and intelligence agencies to malign the indian army.

Stop your silly rumour-mongering.

@ ASHOK LAL TV is not a medium where one can lie and get away with it.

Do you really believe that? Have you ever heard a gentleman called Kapil Sibal stoutly defend his zero loss theories on TV and our media businessmen rolling over to admit his horsesh*t?

As long as he does not have to reveal his sources, Sekhar Gupta will do just fine. And I doubt he ever will. 

A completely relaxed Shekhar Gupta was interviewed by Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN - IBN. Stood his ground, TV is not a medium where one can lie and get away with it. Let the story be debated, the authors are incidental to it.

 When the Fourth Estate turns the Fifth Column, newspapers like the Indian Express fall to such abominably low levels. The IE should take some lessons from Rupert Murdoch and close down at once. It has lost every single right to remain any more in business.

Meanwhile the CBI must hunt the culprits in defence deals;get an inventory check of every single truck for which payment was made by the government of India. It must also get a technical examination done to ensure the trucks are genuine Tatra and working. Short supplies to government is a usual trick adopted by the corrupt in collusion with the lobbies patronised by the mighty and influential.

These lobbies discourage even "modernisation", for modernisation might mean vendor change. Hence big business interests are involved. Hasn't the technology for truck manufacturing undergone tremendous change in the past 20 years that Indian Armed forces are stuck up with this outdated technological product? Which are the best trucks being vended by manufacturers around the world? What are the Americans using in Afghanistan? Tatra trucks? CBI has to remember that out of fear of reprisal from well entranched lobbies, no officer risks offending them by raising questions. But now that an Army Chief has chosen to do so, see how they are after his blood. Even the Indian Express has let down the nation: a paper that became the darling of the masses during the black emergency of Indira Gandhi & her notorious advisers by its ethical standards, which were traded today for peanuts!!!Time to place "reasonable restrictions" on the media. The SC is considering some guidelines for cases before it.Hope it lays down guidelines soon.

1. Two units of the army moved towards Delhi. - Fact
2. This was ordered by COAS - Rubbish.There are four levels of command between the unit and the COAS. Tomorrow someone will allege that the COAS is directly moving companies, platoons and sections if not individual soldiers.
3. Government was not notified. - Apparent Fact. But is there any such requirement. I doubt if even Army HQ or even Command HQ are notified of batallion level movements. these would be handled at Division or maybe Corps levels.
4. Various senior government functionaries were "spooked". - Statement attributed to certain unnamed sources. If true, this reflects poorly on the civilaian elite who seem to want to control the army. It shows that :
   a)  They have no idea of how the army's command and control structure works.
   b)  Their lack of understanding of the army's ethos.
   c)  Their lack of understanding of military realities. Why should two outlying units be moved to Delhi to "pressurise" the government when there are 20,000 troops already in the vicinity?
   d)  All the platitudes mouthed with unceasing regularity, about how the army is respected, that they are trusted etc, are just that - platitudes. The reality is that the army is not trusted.

The entire episode is not just a smear campaign against Gen VK Singh, but an insult to the Indian Army.

'The January night Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army units moved towards Delhi without notifying Govt "

www.indianexpress.com/news/the-january-night-raisina-hill-was-spooked-two-key-army-units-moved-towards-delhi-without-notifying-govt/932328/0

Read the Indian Express Report and judge yourself as to how much this Govt is raked with its own imaginary night mares.

Normal movement of troops have been magnified into big suspected effort of a Coup. It is the perfect case where Babus and some Military Persons have magnified a simple Troop Movement to check the efficiency of the Army and Air Force to test quick response during Fog.The Babus and some elements will do any thing to increase the chasm between the Chief and Govt as the Babus and vested intersts in the Army calling tunes of the Armament dealers,indulging in land scams .offering crores of Rs bribes were exposed by the General.

Is Govt feeling pangs of guilt for humiliating an honest General ?

And seems Shekhar Gupta and his team are now looking suckers as they played into hands of the Bribe Mafia.

Army has justified that if they had moved the Troops towards Ferozpur then Pakistan would have panicked .
And so moved towards Delhi but unfortunately now our own Politicians panicked .

 Indian Express with its meagre subscriber base owes its existence to Congress govt advertisements. So it seems to be an attempt to malign the army as a rogue army.

Indian Express is no more the newspaper which covered Bofors. It si a Congress mouthpiece.

 Establishment got spooked by the Indian Army and the commonfolk by the Indian Express. There is no end to what journalists can claim by way of information from "Sources" and "Reports". They have no responsibility to reveal them and these "Sources" turn out to be figments of their own imagination (probably Sekhar Gupta was trying to write a news report and a fictional novel at the same time). 

On the other hand, this might be a pre-emptive strike by the establishment (with all this fictional story to have never even happened) warning the Army to not even contemplate anything remotely that challenges the government. Probably Indian Express was simply serving the interests of the establishment. 

i had stopped reading indian express long back. shekar gupta has lost it completely, he is proving the black sheep of media. PM has said it will he do anything about it now? or the lobbyist are congress donors?

Outlook has removed all the details of this news. Read the news on IE site and make up your mind.

Outlook India : Media Reports About Troops Movement Alarmist: PM
PTI | New Delhi | Apr 04, 2012
 

There was a joint conspiracy hatched by the Defence bureaucracy and intelligence agencies to malign the indian army. Pro-active steps must be taken to bridge the huge trust deficit between the bureaucracy and the Army.  Equilibrium must be restored

Mr Markandey Katju ,the Chairperson, Press Council of India,is expected to investigate how could  a mainstream newspaper indulge in the luxury of  sensationalism and create a false alarm in the country ? Was this ethical ?

A K SAXENA (A retired civil servant)

1. Two units of the army moved towards Delhi. - Fact
2. This was ordered by COAS - Rubbish.There are four levels of command between the unit and the COAS. Tomorrow someone will allege that the COAS is directly moving companies, platoons and sections if not individual soldiers.
3. Government was not notified. - Apparent Fact. But is there any such requirement. I doubt if even Army HQ or even Command HQ are notified of batallion level movements. these would be handled at Division or maybe Corps levels.
4. Various senior government functionaries were "spooked". - Statement attributed to certain unnamed sources. If true, this reflects poorly on the civilaian elite who seem to want to control the army. It shows that :
   a)  They have no idea of how the army's command and control structure works.
   b)  Their lack of understanding of the army's ethos.
   c)  Their lack of understanding of military realities. Why should two outlying units be moved to Delhi to "pressurise" the government when there are 20,000 troops already in the vicinity?
   d)  All the platitudes mouthed with unceasing regularity, about how the army is respected, that they are trusted etc, are just that - platitudes. The reality is that the army is not trusted.

The entire episode is not just a smear campaign against Gen VK Singh, but an insult to the Indian Army.

Outlook India : Media Reports About Troops Movement Alarmist: PM
PTI | New Delhi | Apr 04, 2012
 

There was a joint conspiracy hatched by the Defence bureaucracy and intelligence agencies to malign the indian army. Pro-active steps must be taken to bridge the huge trust deficit between the bureaucracy and the Army.  Equilibrium must be restored

Mr Markandey Katju ,the Chairperson, Press Council of India,is expected to investigate how could  a mainstream newspaper indulge in the luxury of  sensationalism and create a false alarm in the country ? Was this ethical ?

A K SAXENA (A retired civil servant)

@ ASHOK LAL TV is not a medium where one can lie and get away with it.

Do you really believe that? Have you ever heard a gentleman called Kapil Sibal stoutly defend his zero loss theories on TV and our media businessmen rolling over to admit his horsesh*t?

As long as he does not have to reveal his sources, Sekhar Gupta will do just fine. And I doubt he ever will. 

>> "The entire episode is an outgrowth of the atmosphere of distrust created by Gen V K Singh's washing dirty linen in public. " - Anwaar

The sickulars must acknowledge that they do not have the sole right to wash dirty linen in public. The General spent enough time banging his head against the babudom, led by a honest-but-mum minister. He escalated issues only after he ran out of options.

The Congress lackeys are frustrated that they cannot find much muck to throw at their "adversaries" like Anna, Bhushans, CAG and the General. So, the Congress have activated their dirty tricks department again.

'The January night Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army units moved towards Delhi without notifying Govt "

www.indianexpress.com/news/the-january-night-raisina-hill-was-spooked-two-key-army-units-moved-towards-delhi-without-notifying-govt/932328/0

Read the Indian Express Report and judge yourself as to how much this Govt is raked with its own imaginary night mares.

Normal movement of troops have been magnified into big suspected effort of a Coup. It is the perfect case where Babus and some Military Persons have magnified a simple Troop Movement to check the efficiency of the Army and Air Force to test quick response during Fog.The Babus and some elements will do any thing to increase the chasm between the Chief and Govt as the Babus and vested intersts in the Army calling tunes of the Armament dealers,indulging in land scams .offering crores of Rs bribes were exposed by the General.

Is Govt feeling pangs of guilt for humiliating an honest General ?

And seems Shekhar Gupta and his team are now looking suckers as they played into hands of the Bribe Mafia.

Army has justified that if they had moved the Troops towards Ferozpur then Pakistan would have panicked .
And so moved towards Delhi but unfortunately now our own Politicians panicked .

 Indian Express with its meagre subscriber base owes its existence to Congress govt advertisements. So it seems to be an attempt to malign the army as a rogue army.

Indian Express is no more the newspaper which covered Bofors. It si a Congress mouthpiece.

These dim witted rascals whose sole purpose is to survive on the crumbs thrown by the dynasty do not realize that with each such dirty tactic, they are, in fact, raising the stature of the Army chief. There could have been some doubts about his intentions early on, but now, it's becoming clear as daylight that the honest man is being dragged into the mud for his courage and probity. The paid khandani chamchas of congress first accused him of leaking the letter. Now it comes out that it was not the Army chief who did that. But even then you see these donkeys braying endlessly about the general washing the dirty linen in the public.

Shekhar Gupta now claims that at the time of Anna movement, Anna was the establishment! Such parasites who masquerade as intellectuals. Shame on you!

 Establishment got spooked by the Indian Army and the commonfolk by the Indian Express. There is no end to what journalists can claim by way of information from "Sources" and "Reports". They have no responsibility to reveal them and these "Sources" turn out to be figments of their own imagination (probably Sekhar Gupta was trying to write a news report and a fictional novel at the same time). 

On the other hand, this might be a pre-emptive strike by the establishment (with all this fictional story to have never even happened) warning the Army to not even contemplate anything remotely that challenges the government. Probably Indian Express was simply serving the interests of the establishment. 

i had stopped reading indian express long back. shekar gupta has lost it completely, he is proving the black sheep of media. PM has said it will he do anything about it now? or the lobbyist are congress donors?

Looks like the defense procurement scam is much more serious than it appears. If Bofors scam (paltry 60 odd crore kickback) could bring down Rajiv Gandhi government, this has potential to sink THE FAMILY for good. If Gupta succeeds in diverting attention away from this, he can sleep peacefully dreaming of an 'assured gift' of a Padma award.

Anwaar,

Irretrievably tarnished? I doubt it.

Ask any army officer of your acquaintance. For that matter, ask any young officer whether he has heard of FM Maneckshaw. Then ask the same officer if he has heard of lt Gen Jacob.

PS. I knew Gen Jacob when he was an instructor at the staff college and Sam Maneckshaw was the Commandant or had just left to resurrect IV Corps after another 'sarkari' general had ruined it. I can't remember him having displayed these obsessions that he was running the show and telling everyone what to do. Incidentally, Jacob's partner in arms in maligning Sam is the son of the General who presided over the 1962 debacle.
 

'Senior minister Sutradhar of coup report?

Sources involved in tracking sensitive developments claim that a senior minister of the UPA government was the mastermind of the April 4 front page item in a daily newspaper about a suspected coup attempt. The sources claim that the minister is connected - through his close relative - with the defense procurement lobbies gunning for Chief of Army Staff General V K Singh,and that the decision to "trick the newspaper into running a baseless report was to drain away support for General Singh within the political class",

According to these sources,the minister in question "is well-known to senior journalistic levels of the publication" that ran the coup report. A military source was "surprised that the newspaper in question ran such a story,in view of the high level of competence of its senior staff", but added that " a senior minister being the source of the initial information would explain their belief in the truth of the report". Other military sources warned that the "objective behind the leak was not merely to discredit the Chief but to paralyse the army in its training function". Already, procurements have slowed to dangerous levels because of repeated - and often accurate - claims of graft. Should the military's freedom to undertake routine training exercises of the sort described in the report get curtailed" because of imaginary fears of a coup, "the military would very soon lose its fighting edge". Military sources claim that even some civilian officials "are linked to arms lobbyists and through '

www.sunday-guardian.com/investigation/senior-minister-sutradhar-of-coup-report

MJ Akbar and paper is any day more reliable than Indian Express. Tragedy is that Shekhar Gupta has become a tool in hands of the Arms lobby whose dana pai has been harmed.

Mr Shekhar Gupta :: If you expose the Source who mislead you then it will be great favour to India and the Indians

NATION AT LEAST EXPECTS THIS MUCH FROM FROM YOU NOW sincE you have been used .

strictest action must be taken against IE publication and shekhar gupta, reports are coming in that this was a planted news.

will mr katju do some real work finally or we are going to see another congress pawn?

someone said army rule is better than mms? well if congress comes next time, common men will have no other option to say.

>> "For 60 years the army has kept quiet and the public at large couldn't give a s**t. Quite normal for a country which has always had an all volunteer force." - Bonita

So true. The swindling going on in the defence deals was always an open secret. The defence forces that have remained ABSOLUTELY secular and caste-agnostic in a country as divided as ours speaks volumes about this institution. It is shameful that the politicians and babudom cannot keep their evil gaze away from it.

I must also commend (and thank you) on some very informative posts/info that I was previously unaware of.

Anwaar,

You are entitled to your opinion, but you need to consider the following.

atmosphere of distrust created by Gen V K Singh's washing dirty linen in public.

1. The atmosphere of distrust has always existed. Every attempt to downgrade and belittle the armed forces derives from this distrust. For 60 years the army has kept quiet and the public at large couldn't give a s**t. Quite normal for a country which has always had an all volunteer force.

2. Washing dirty linen in public is now the order of the day with RTI and all that. Anyway, why is the dirty linen there in the first place and in whose interest is it to keep it hidden? Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

As Lieutenant General (retd) JFR Jacob said in IE

Wrong person to quote. Gen Jacob has irretrievably tarnished his reputation by publicly running down his superior officers (FM Maneckshaw and Lt gen JS Arora) in public and trying to claim credit for the 1971 victory in Bangladesh. Field Marshal Maneckshaw will still be revered in military circles long after people say "Gen Jacob - who?".

The core issue in the story is whether the government spooked as claimed by Shekhar Gupta and the IE. I have already explained what such willingness to be spooked implies. To summarise, if a routine troop movement of less than a thousand soldiers caused alarm bells to ring, then it displays the paranoia of ill informed, insecure individuals in positions of power. When one is devious, one suspects everyone else of the same fault. When has given cause to fear retribution then one believes that it is on its way.

Since Shekhar Gupta stands by his story, he would do well to name the individuals whom he claims were "spooked".

Guptaji's newspaper IE is not popular anymore. He needed some attention and fair enough he was hogging the limelight all day long on all national channels. Wonder he has a halicopter, amazing how he managed to cover 4 channels in one evening.

Guptaji is much pissed off by twitter, where is known as 'Kala Kutta, which he himself said on Star News. Shri Guptaji was talking as if he was giving lesson on journalism as he was looking rather sheepish.

Military coup is better than a dumb Prime Minister we have.

Outlook has removed all the details of this news. Read the news on IE site and make up your mind.

 what is going in this country.Media has no code of conduct they are pulishing silly report only to increase their ciculation.There is no possibility of coup in this country .Our democracy is deep rooted althogh there is some shortcomings.Indian Express has done blunder and they have misused the power of media.

In this age of supine shivers going down at the sight of few uniforms moving towards Delhi let better let us fix some Norms as to how many Armed personnel can move towards Delhi without seeking permission ?

I think nil will be more reassuring number .

Coo Kaabh ,Khan aur Kasie -TV Commentator said !!!

Now the basics :

Can Chief of Army Staff lift a phone and order the Battalion Commander to move his Battalion to Delhi ??

Unheard and never done .

Hissar unit moving on 48 Tatra Trucks with Armaments on the National Highway .How could an Unit moving under the gaze of the General Public escorted by Military Police to clear traffic be on clandestine mission ??

They can't move without informing the Civil Authorities

Will not Battalion Commander inform his Brigade commander who in turn will inform his Divisional Commander who in turn will inform the Core Commander who in turn has to inform DGMO that Chief has ordered the Colonel directly to move one Battalion to Delhi ??

Now will not DGMO inform Delhi Commander who has nearly one Division under his Command that one Battalion is moving to Delhi so that Units in Delhi don't confront the Hissar Battalion and ask :

Aap Agrawale yehan kaya kar rehien hamre area mein ?? Where is the authorization to move into area under our control ??

Naturally Delhi Commander will ask why a Battalion from Hissar whose fighting strength is hardly 400 men are coming to Delhi when Delhi itself has full Division of 15000 fully Armed troops ?? Another Parachute Unit with another 400 persons were involve din this exercise

There are more troops available in Meerut and nearby Cantonments like Alwar,Mathura or even Ambala Cantt .

Any time a dozen units of Army are doing such exercises in the night .They never inform Delhi nor are required to do so .

So where is the coo when the full chain of Command right from Hissar to Delhi would be automatically come to know of decision that C-in C has ordered the Battalion Commander directly ??

And you wake up the Defence Secretary in mid of the night in Singapore to fly back .

Damn it is hilarious ,hilarious and stupid ,stupid .

Shekar Gupta is otherwise an intelligent and well respected Media person.Still taken for a ride at this advance age ??? This proves that :

There is no age bar for any human being to be hoodwinked by the interested parties who in this case are the L oboists whose interests have been very badly damaged aur Dana Pani ko nuksan hua hein by the cleanliness drive of General V K SINGH .

And then there are those barren cows who always bray for any action of the Chief be linked to his Age issue .These poor cows are belching and producing gobbar gases as they are unable to digest the fodder supplied by the scamesters.

Shekhar Gupta : COO Kabh ,KHAN AUR KAISE ???

 When the Fourth Estate turns the Fifth Column, newspapers like the Indian Express fall to such abominably low levels. The IE should take some lessons from Rupert Murdoch and close down at once. It has lost every single right to remain any more in business.

Meanwhile the CBI must hunt the culprits in defence deals;get an inventory check of every single truck for which payment was made by the government of India. It must also get a technical examination done to ensure the trucks are genuine Tatra and working. Short supplies to government is a usual trick adopted by the corrupt in collusion with the lobbies patronised by the mighty and influential.

These lobbies discourage even "modernisation", for modernisation might mean vendor change. Hence big business interests are involved. Hasn't the technology for truck manufacturing undergone tremendous change in the past 20 years that Indian Armed forces are stuck up with this outdated technological product? Which are the best trucks being vended by manufacturers around the world? What are the Americans using in Afghanistan? Tatra trucks? CBI has to remember that out of fear of reprisal from well entranched lobbies, no officer risks offending them by raising questions. But now that an Army Chief has chosen to do so, see how they are after his blood. Even the Indian Express has let down the nation: a paper that became the darling of the masses during the black emergency of Indira Gandhi & her notorious advisers by its ethical standards, which were traded today for peanuts!!!Time to place "reasonable restrictions" on the media. The SC is considering some guidelines for cases before it.Hope it lays down guidelines soon.

All said and done IE & at times The Hindu are still the most readable paper among TOI, HT, et el....Nowhere the COUP word was mentioned. All it said was that there is an ever widening gap between military and Govt and that is a caus efor concern. 2000 odd troops do notlead to a coup. Delihi region already has 20000 militarymen deployed. SO no need to mobilise from outside for a COUP.

All the readers who are paranoid, need to READ the IE report. Now start the abuse! 

 I wish we will not read more of such news, but one can not be sure...

BTW, it appears that Congress is pushing to make 2G family Friend, Sam Pitroda as the next Prez candiate of UPA..

Surely, the senior minister of UPA2 govt should have more reasons to be unhappy...

Saxena,

>> There was a joint conspiracy hatched by the Defence bureaucracy and intelligence agencies to malign the indian army.

Stop your silly rumour-mongering.

A completely relaxed Shekhar Gupta was interviewed by Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN - IBN. Stood his ground, TV is not a medium where one can lie and get away with it. Let the story be debated, the authors are incidental to it.

Saxena,

>> There was a joint conspiracy hatched by the Defence bureaucracy and intelligence agencies to malign the indian army.

Stop your silly rumour-mongering.

Bonita,

>> The entire episode is not just a smear campaign against Gen VK Singh, but an insult to the Indian Army.

The entire episode is an outgrowth of the atmosphere of distrust created by Gen V K Singh's washing dirty linen in public. As Lieutenant General (retd) JFR Jacob said in IE, "It should never have spilled into the public. This is not a matter for the public domain. It was between the army and the ministry and the babus. And it should be sorted out between them."

A completely relaxed Shekhar Gupta was interviewed by Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN - IBN. Stood his ground, TV is not a medium where one can lie and get away with it. Let the story be debated, the authors are incidental to it.

Bonita,

>> The atmosphere of distrust has always existed.

But now it is public.

>> why is the dirty linen there in the first place and in whose interest is it to keep it hidden?

As Gen. Jacob said, "It should never have spilled into the public. This is not a matter for the public domain." Bringing it up after losing face in SC and waiting till one month before exiting from the army should raise some questions.

>>  . Gen Jacob has irretrievably tarnished his reputation.

Irretrievably tarnished? I doubt it.

>>  whether the government spooked as claimed by Shekhar Gupta and the IE.

I agree. IE erred.

All said and done IE & at times The Hindu are still the most readable paper among TOI, HT, et el....Nowhere the COUP word was mentioned. All it said was that there is an ever widening gap between military and Govt and that is a caus efor concern. 2000 odd troops do notlead to a coup. Delihi region already has 20000 militarymen deployed. SO no need to mobilise from outside for a COUP.

All the readers who are paranoid, need to READ the IE report. Now start the abuse! 

i had stopped reading indian express long back. shekar gupta has lost it completely, he is proving the black sheep of media. PM has said it will he do anything about it now? or the lobbyist are congress donors?

Outlook India : Media Reports About Troops Movement Alarmist: PM
PTI | New Delhi | Apr 04, 2012
 

There was a joint conspiracy hatched by the Defence bureaucracy and intelligence agencies to malign the indian army. Pro-active steps must be taken to bridge the huge trust deficit between the bureaucracy and the Army.  Equilibrium must be restored

Mr Markandey Katju ,the Chairperson, Press Council of India,is expected to investigate how could  a mainstream newspaper indulge in the luxury of  sensationalism and create a false alarm in the country ? Was this ethical ?

A K SAXENA (A retired civil servant)

 Establishment got spooked by the Indian Army and the commonfolk by the Indian Express. There is no end to what journalists can claim by way of information from "Sources" and "Reports". They have no responsibility to reveal them and these "Sources" turn out to be figments of their own imagination (probably Sekhar Gupta was trying to write a news report and a fictional novel at the same time). 

On the other hand, this might be a pre-emptive strike by the establishment (with all this fictional story to have never even happened) warning the Army to not even contemplate anything remotely that challenges the government. Probably Indian Express was simply serving the interests of the establishment. 

strictest action must be taken against IE publication and shekhar gupta, reports are coming in that this was a planted news.

will mr katju do some real work finally or we are going to see another congress pawn?

someone said army rule is better than mms? well if congress comes next time, common men will have no other option to say.

Military coup is better than a dumb Prime Minister we have.

Guptaji's newspaper IE is not popular anymore. He needed some attention and fair enough he was hogging the limelight all day long on all national channels. Wonder he has a halicopter, amazing how he managed to cover 4 channels in one evening.

Guptaji is much pissed off by twitter, where is known as 'Kala Kutta, which he himself said on Star News. Shri Guptaji was talking as if he was giving lesson on journalism as he was looking rather sheepish.

@ ASHOK LAL TV is not a medium where one can lie and get away with it.

Do you really believe that? Have you ever heard a gentleman called Kapil Sibal stoutly defend his zero loss theories on TV and our media businessmen rolling over to admit his horsesh*t?

As long as he does not have to reveal his sources, Sekhar Gupta will do just fine. And I doubt he ever will. 

 When the Fourth Estate turns the Fifth Column, newspapers like the Indian Express fall to such abominably low levels. The IE should take some lessons from Rupert Murdoch and close down at once. It has lost every single right to remain any more in business.

Meanwhile the CBI must hunt the culprits in defence deals;get an inventory check of every single truck for which payment was made by the government of India. It must also get a technical examination done to ensure the trucks are genuine Tatra and working. Short supplies to government is a usual trick adopted by the corrupt in collusion with the lobbies patronised by the mighty and influential.

These lobbies discourage even "modernisation", for modernisation might mean vendor change. Hence big business interests are involved. Hasn't the technology for truck manufacturing undergone tremendous change in the past 20 years that Indian Armed forces are stuck up with this outdated technological product? Which are the best trucks being vended by manufacturers around the world? What are the Americans using in Afghanistan? Tatra trucks? CBI has to remember that out of fear of reprisal from well entranched lobbies, no officer risks offending them by raising questions. But now that an Army Chief has chosen to do so, see how they are after his blood. Even the Indian Express has let down the nation: a paper that became the darling of the masses during the black emergency of Indira Gandhi & her notorious advisers by its ethical standards, which were traded today for peanuts!!!Time to place "reasonable restrictions" on the media. The SC is considering some guidelines for cases before it.Hope it lays down guidelines soon.

'The January night Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army units moved towards Delhi without notifying Govt "

www.indianexpress.com/news/the-january-night-raisina-hill-was-spooked-two-key-army-units-moved-towards-delhi-without-notifying-govt/932328/0

Read the Indian Express Report and judge yourself as to how much this Govt is raked with its own imaginary night mares.

Normal movement of troops have been magnified into big suspected effort of a Coup. It is the perfect case where Babus and some Military Persons have magnified a simple Troop Movement to check the efficiency of the Army and Air Force to test quick response during Fog.The Babus and some elements will do any thing to increase the chasm between the Chief and Govt as the Babus and vested intersts in the Army calling tunes of the Armament dealers,indulging in land scams .offering crores of Rs bribes were exposed by the General.

Is Govt feeling pangs of guilt for humiliating an honest General ?

And seems Shekhar Gupta and his team are now looking suckers as they played into hands of the Bribe Mafia.

Army has justified that if they had moved the Troops towards Ferozpur then Pakistan would have panicked .
And so moved towards Delhi but unfortunately now our own Politicians panicked .

 Indian Express with its meagre subscriber base owes its existence to Congress govt advertisements. So it seems to be an attempt to malign the army as a rogue army.

Indian Express is no more the newspaper which covered Bofors. It si a Congress mouthpiece.

Outlook has removed all the details of this news. Read the news on IE site and make up your mind.