There were reports last night of a potential military coup in India. Rumors talked about Indian military units marching towards the capital of New Delhi. The story seemed very strange since the country is not known to be unstable or have frequent uprisings.
We were curious exactly what happened so we spoke to a source in India familiar with the matter. Here is a brief overview of what we found out.The rumor is considered a joke, in fact people are actually laughing about it. The news of the military maneuver which sparked the rumor was actually from January 16th!
The rumor caught the attention of major sites, so what was behind it all? Most likely the rumor planted by the incumbent government, who are at loggerheads with the current military chief, General V.K. Singh, and want to harm his credibility.
Manmohan Singh is currently the Prime Minister of India. The source of the rumor was a newspaper close to Singh’s ruling party. The current defence minister, has had a tense relationship with the military chief over some petty issue since the past six months or so.
However, the Government cannot fire the military chief because he is held in high esteem. It is also an action, which has never occurred in India. The military is held in high esteem in India, and would never try to overthrow a democratically elected Government, against the wishes of its people. However, it is also hard to fire the head of the military for that same exact reason. The best way to get back therefore is to discredit your opponent.To further support our case that this was nonsense, we asked some of our sources in Pakistan about the rumors. Pakistan and India are arch-enemies, so Pakistan would likely have some knowledge about what is happening in their nuclear armed neighbor. Many were even unaware of the rumors entirely!
Once again, a case of petty politics, not a rebellion in the world’s second largest country.