NEW DELHI: Reacting to accusations that he had funded a J&K politician to topple chief minister Omar Abdullah’s government, former Army chief General VK Singh on Monday said those who leveled these allegations were anti-nationals as Army had to pay ministers in the border state “to bring people together. In an interview to Times Now, Singh said “paying ministers” was nothing new in J&K. “It has been happening since independence and everybody would have known about this. It is not something invented by V K Singh. Funding ministers is to get people together in Kashmir,” he said. Singh also said he didn’t consider those as patriotic who said that Army was trying to engineer a coup in Delhi and later said it was trying to topple the J&K government. What has been done has been done with highly motivated agenda,” Gen Singh said, adding that he has filed an RTI application for a copy of the “secret” report and laughed off allegations that Army had set up the technical support division, a counter-intelligence unit, to destabilize the J&K government.
“This is most serious and ludicrous charge anyone can put. Reports talking about toppling the government in New Delhi and then using Rs 1.5 crore to topple the government in J&K,” he said, and added that the J&K CM was aware of all the activities and funding of a state minister by the Army to carry out certain tasks to bring harmony in the state.
“He knows about the type of stability work that has been done… what he is saying now is purely motivated,” the former Army chief said and alleged that he was in league with people who had an agenda inimical to the interest of the country. He parried questions whether he was joining BJP, the party which has come out strongly in his support attacking the Congress for timing the leak of the report just after Singh had shared dais with BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
The ruling National Conference in J&K, while supporting the allegation that there was an attempt to destabilize the state government, rejected Gen Singh’s arguments and said mere denials were not enough. The NC demanded a judicial probe into the issue.”My name is being tarnished. I know what I have done for J&K. Who started the KPL (Kashmir Premier League)? Those who are accusing (of toppling the state government) have an agenda,” Gen Singh said. He said governments fall because of misgovernance and not because someone tries to topple. He said state agriculture minister Ghulam Hasan mir was a true nationalist and he was paid by the Army to carry out certain tasks in the interest of the nation to bring people together. Gen Singh also denied that TSD had any snooping instrument and that it was purely human intelligence and not snooping on any politician. On allegations of an attempt to change the line of succession in the Army and frustrate the chance of Gen Bikram Singh to become Army chief after him, VK Singh said had that been his purpose, the establishment under him would have changed the stance the Army had taken in courts on the fake encounter case.
Bureau Report
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