New Delhi, January 10

Former Union Minister Manish Tewari’s confirmation of a media report of a ‘non-notified’ movement of a unit of the army towards the national capital in 2012 has sparked off a row, with both Minister of State For External Affairs VK Singh and Tewari’s own party — the Congress — dismissing the claims.Singh, general of the Indian Army at the time of the supposed incident, called Tewari, ‘jobless’.“Manish Tewari ji has nothing to do these days. There is this book of mine, ask him to read it and everything will be clear to him,” he said.Singh was referring to his autobiographical book ‘Courage and Conviction’ in which he has crticised the Indian government on several issues, including corruption and the role of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in Operation Bluestar.This comes a day after Tewari said the story was ‘unfortunate but true’.”At that time, I used to serve in the Standing Committee of Defence. And it’s unfortunate, but the story was true. The 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,” said Tewari during a book launch function here.A media report entitled ‘”The January night Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army units moved towards Delhi without notifying Govt’ in a leading Indian daily on April 4, 2012, claimed on the night of January 16, 2012 — the day General VK Singh approached the Supreme Court over his date of birth issue — central intelligence agencies reported an unexpected (and non-notified) movement by a key military unit from the mechanised infantry based in Hisar (Haryana) as a part of the 33rd Armoured Division (part of 1 Corps, a strike formation based in Mathura and commanded by Lt Gen AK Singh) in the direction of the capital, 150 km away.The daily claimed the report was a meticulous reconstruction and a very sober interpretation of the movement of two key Army units towards New Delhi on the night of January 16–17.VK Singh called the report “absolutely stupid”.The BJP also questioned the timing of the “admission”.“Manish Tewari’s comments raise the question about the timing of the statement. His comments become a suspect. I would only ask why was he quiet when his government had denied that there was anything like this happening when they were in power,” BJP leader Siddharthnath Singh said.Tewari hit back at VK Singh and told him to read his book first.“Why is Right H”onble MP from Ghaziabad getting so antsy of course I would love to read his book provided he promises to read mine — in offing,” Tewari said in a tweet.UPA government was at the Centre at the time of the supposed incident. We deny report: CongressTewari’s own party, the Congress, denied the claims.  “We on behalf of Congress very clearly and categorically want to deny this report,” party spokesperson P C Chacko said.Another party spokesperson, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, said there is no truth in the report. “I am again clarifying there is absolutely no truth in it (claims about troop movement in 2012), he said.”My colleague was neither a member of the Cabinet Committee on Security, nor any relevant decision making body,” Singhvi said, adding some troop movements are necessary, inbuilt and inevitable part of the defence mechanism.”It was inappropriate, unnecessary and completely wrong to suggest that there was any truth in those allegations when made,” he said.

Isolated in his own party, Tewari said: “Whatever I said yesterday, I have nothing more to add or subtract.” — Agencies