
New Delhi: Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju has said that "someone" in the government "may have read too much" into the movement of two key army units towards Delhi in January.
Speaking to Karan Thapar on Devil's Advocate, he said that there are protocols that exist where somebody has to be informed or somebody has to be kept in the loop.
Here is the full transcript of the interview:
Karan Thapar: Hello and welcome to Devil's Advocate. How does the government respond to the controversies surrounding the Army and the Army chief " that's the key issue I shall explore today with the Minister of State for Defence, MM Pallam Raju. Minister, let us start with the Indian Express story suggesting that a possible coup in the making was nipped in the bud on January 16-17. The Prime Minister, the Defence Minister and the Army Chief have dismissed the story as alarmist, rubbish and stupid. But the paper stands by it. So are you absolutely certain there is no truth to the story? ...
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08:30 PM, Apr 09, 2012

Someone within the government could have tried to play mischief, says Minister of State for Defence Pallam Raju on Army spooks report. ...

10:22 PM, Apr 08, 2012

New Delhi: Someone within the government could have tried to play mischief, says Minister of State for Defence Pallam Raju on the Army spooks report. He said that exaggerated reports about troop movement in January may have been the handiwork of some mischief makers. Speaking to Karan Thapar on Devil's Advocate, he said that the situation may have been used by people to create confusion in the already trying times....

05:44 PM, Apr 08, 2012

New Delhi: That there was some talk about the mid-January movement of two elite Army units towards the capital which had exercised Army Chief Gen V K Singh's mind is evident in an interview he had given to an English magazine in middle of March. "Even, let us say one of our forces or divisions or brigades does exercise, somebody will say, oh! they did exercise. It was not an...

07:02 PM, Apr 05, 2012

New Delhi: The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta has strongly defended the story of the Army units movement and has said that is based on facts and that he is not worried about denials. talking to IBN18 Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, Shekhar Gupta said the 'C' word in the Army units movement story is 'curious' and not 'coup', which means it is for the readers to interpret it the way they...

01:00 PM, Apr 05, 2012

Kathmandu: Army Chief General VK Singh on Thursday joined the political leadership in dismissing 'The Indian Express' story on the suspicious movement of two key Army units towards Delhi in January 2012, which reportedly "spooked" the Central Government. "This is absolutely stupid," was all that the Army Chief said in Nepal's capital Kathmandu while reacting to the Army units movement report. The terse statement was his first since the controversy...

12:12 PM, Apr 05, 2012

New Delhi: A panel of experts, reacting on the story of the army units movement reported by the Indian Express, on Wednesday said that there was indeed a widening fissure between the Indian Army and the UPA government. During a discussion on CNN-IBN with IBN18 Editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai, former diplomat KC Singh said that the lack of trust was visible on both sides, be it over naming the successor to...

12:12 AM, Apr 05, 2012

The Prime Minister and the Defence Ministry have rubbished the report in The Indian Express on 'suspicious' movement of Army troops calling it 'alarmist' and 'totally baseless'. ...

11:59 PM, Apr 04, 2012

Catch the day's top stories on India at 9 with Rajdeep Sardesai. ...

11:57 PM, Apr 04, 2012

The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta said that the government's denial on the newspapers' report is outdated. ...

11:48 PM, Apr 04, 2012

New Delhi: The Prime Minister and the Defence Ministry have rubbished the report in The Indian Express on 'suspicious' movement of Army troops calling it 'alarmist' and 'totally baseless'. In a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday just a few hours after The Indian Express story was published, Manmohan Singh said that the media report should not be taken on face value. "The Army Chief's office is...

12:42 PM, Apr 04, 2012

Defence analyst Uday Bhaskar said that the Indian military never entertained thoughts of a coup. ...

11:59 AM, Apr 04, 2012