UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi & Congress President Rahul Gandhi

BJP leader GVL Narasimha Rao, in an address to the media, sought clarification from the Congress if the Pakistan Army's intelligence unit, the ISI, had aided in this process

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party government on Wednesday accused the Congress-ruled United Progressive Alliance-II government of 'leaking' information of a 'fake' Army coup to the media and sought the identity of the minister in the UPA government who had leaked the information. BJP leader GVL Narasimha Rao, in an address to the media, sought clarification from the Congress if the Pakistan Army's intelligence unit, the ISI, had aided in this process.

The former Congress-ruled United Progressive Alliance government come under attack from the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre after a newspaper report on Wednesday claimed that the UPA had tried to malign the Indian Army and that a coup was being plotted by the Army and then-General VK Singh against the UPA-2 government. 

"This is not just a political conspiracy but also an attempt to defame the Indian army. In January 2012, there were media reports that claimed that the Indian Army was staging a coup against the then-Manmohan Singh government. The stories were planted by senior leaders of the Congress party, including certain Cabinet ministers. This was a manufactured coup. Based on the information that was given to him, the then-prime minister asked the IB to present facts on the rumour. Even after the IB had cleared the rumours, the UPA still planted the story in media that attempted to malign the Indian Army," Rao told media persons in New Delhi.

The Standing Committee on Defence member also said that an emergency meeting of the committee will be convened to look into the matter and investigate who all were involved in the entire act and what was the motive behind this. 

"What was the motive behind plotting a fake story about the army coup? Who were the ministers involved in spreading lies and defaming the army? Was (Congress president) Rahul Gandhi the brains behind this dangerous conspiracy? Was this attempt done at the behest of the ISI or Pakistani Army which has a record of staging coups? Such a false alarm manufactured by an elected government is an attempt to compromise Indian Army and subvert Indian democracy," Rao said.

A report by Sunday Guardian on February 2 revealed that the UPA government had around 2011-12 indirectly approached the Intelligence Bureau (IB) stating the claims. However, even after IB claimed that there was no such coup happening, someone from the government "leaked" the details to the media.