India's civil-military relations, steadily deteriorating for months under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party-led coalition, has recently suffered a further setback. The new low follows a report, hinting at an aggressive show of force by a disgruntled army chief, General V K Singh.
The influential Indian Express newspaper on Wednesday reported that in mid-January two army units, including a Special Forces battalion, had marched on New Delhi without telling the proper authorities. For 18 hours it reportedly panicked the government, already locked with Gen Singh in a legal row over his date of birth. The report hinted obliquely at a feeble, ill-conceived coup attempt by Gen Singh, but stopped just short of terming it one.
Two units from 1 Strike Corps, one of the army's three "sword arms", headquartered at Mathura, 150km (93 miles) east of Delhi, accompanied by around 50 armoured vehicles had marched, unannounced, on the capital.
BBC News - Why are India's army and government at loggerheads?
It seems General V K Singh of the Indian army is fed up with Indian regime. Something is cooking in India and it isn't curry chicken.
The influential Indian Express newspaper on Wednesday reported that in mid-January two army units, including a Special Forces battalion, had marched on New Delhi without telling the proper authorities. For 18 hours it reportedly panicked the government, already locked with Gen Singh in a legal row over his date of birth. The report hinted obliquely at a feeble, ill-conceived coup attempt by Gen Singh, but stopped just short of terming it one.
Two units from 1 Strike Corps, one of the army's three "sword arms", headquartered at Mathura, 150km (93 miles) east of Delhi, accompanied by around 50 armoured vehicles had marched, unannounced, on the capital.
BBC News - Why are India's army and government at loggerheads?
It seems General V K Singh of the Indian army is fed up with Indian regime. Something is cooking in India and it isn't curry chicken.
