‘Army rows ploy to defame Antony, Gen Singh’

Anna Hazare and his team on Tuesday said the controversies surrounding the army appeared to be a conspiracy to malign “honest “defence minister Antony and and army chief Gen VK Singh.

Anna Hazare and his team on Tuesday said the controversies surrounding the army appeared to be a conspiracy to malign “honest “defence minister Antony and and army chief Gen VK Singh.

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In a five-page letter to PM Manmohan Singh, Anna Hazare demanded an impartial inquiry into the recent developments related to the army saying any probe by the CBI and the IB will not bring out the truth since these organisations are “under the government’s control.”

“Do the developments in the past few months show there is a conspiracy against the honest defence minister and the honest army chief ?” stated the letter by Hazare, Shanti Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi.

Questioning the motive behind the newspaper report on the “unusual movement” of two army units on the night of January 16, Hazare and his colleagues stated that it appeared that the story was aimed at getting Antony and Gen Singh removed from their posts.

“Many scams in defence deals have come to light but the CBI has failed to get the accused convicted in these cases. We do not believe the CBI is not capable of doing it... when the masters are corrupt, how can the CBI work freely,” the letter asked.