Congress framing ex-Army chief V K Singh for political gain: BJP

Nagpur, Sept 21: Accusing the Centre of "misusing" intelligence agencies and armed forces for political dividend, BJP today said former Army chief General V K Singh was falsely accused of allegedly attempting to destabilise Jammu and Kashmir government.

"General Singh is being implicated in attempts to topple the Jammu and Kashmir government (during his tenure as Army chief)..Why would a General do this?" BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar said here today.

He was responding to a query to a media report saying the General misused the secret service funds to topple the Omar Abdullah government. The BJP had accused Congress of "hounding" Singh for sharing the stage with its PM-hopeful Narendra Modi at a rally in Haryana.

According to a media report quoting an Army document, Singh paid off an NGO to try change the line of succession in the Army top brass, to buy off-air interception equipment and to conduct "unauthorised" covert operations.

The Board of Officers' report of the Army has alleged misuse of position by Singh and unauthorised operations and financial wrong doing by the intelligence unit named Technical Support Division.

Javdekar said the Central government was also "misusing" the armed forces and in the process, the Army is being defamed. "Our enemy country might take advantage of the situation," the Rajya Sabha MP said.

He alleged a nexus of Congress and Samajwadi Party behind Muzaffarnagar violence in Uttar Pradesh. "The Uttar Pradesh government did not allow BJP chief Rajnath Singh to visit the riot-affected areas but later allowed top Congress leaders," he said.

Javdekar accused Congress of not keeping its poll promises, saying, "the people will certainly question why the party failed to deliver on the promises within 100 days of coming to power".

He also criticised Maharashtra government for its failure to arrest culprits responsible for August 20 murder of anti-superstition crusader Narendra Dabholkar in Pune.

PTI