Charging a section of the opposition with deliberately raising the issue, Congress on Monday said the reported survey of Muslims in the armed forces was not army specific but a general fact finding exercise.

"It is a data collection exercise cutting across the whole country," party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters in New Delhi.

'Govt communalising armed forces'

"It is not army specific, but a general fact finding exercise," he said, accusing the opposition of deliberately raising a storm in a teacup when 'no such teacup or storm existed.'

Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and National Democratic Alliance convenor George Fernandes had reacted sharply to the reported move of the United Progressive Alliance government to survey the number of Muslims serving in the army, terming it as an attempt to 'communalise' the Armed forces and create 'divisions' among them.