I have more work than MoS: Tewari on VK Singh's 'jobless' jibe

Hitting back at Union minister and former Army chief General VK Singh's 'jobless' jibe, former information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari on Monday said that by God's grace, he had much more work to do than a minister of state.

"Saw @Gen_VKSingh statement on being jobless. Well Minister I know how much work MOS's in GOI have. With God's grace have more work than that," Tewari tweeted.

Following the furor over Tewari admitting that the Raisina Hill incident was reported correctly by the Indian Express in 2012, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh, the then army chief general, dismissed the Congress leader's statement saying 'he has no work these days'.

"Manish Tewari ji has nothing to do these days. There is this book of mine, ask him to read it and everything will be clear to him," The retired army general told reporters.

Singh was referring to his autobiographical book 'Courage and Conviction' where he has criticised various situations in which he was involved, including alleged corruption in the Indian government and the role of Indira Gandhi in Operation Bluestar.

Meanwhile, Tewari remained firm on his stand that the Raisina Hill incident was reported correctly by the Indian Express in 2012 and said that nothing 'needed to be added or subtracted' from his statement.

"I have nothing more to add or subtract to what I said on Sunday," Tewari told media persons on Sunday.

Tewari had earlier brushed aside allegations that a news item concerning troops' movement published by the Indian Express was 'fake' and said that it was an 'unfortunate but true' story.

"At that time, I used to serve in the standing committee of defence. And it's unfortunate, but the story was true. The story was correct. I am not getting into an argument. All I am saying is that to the best of my knowledge that story was correct," said Tewari during a book launch function in New Delhi on Sunday.

The Indian Express had on April 4, 2012, reported that late on the night of January 16, 2012 (the day then army chief general Singh approached the Supreme Court on his date of birth issue), central intelligence agencies reported an unexpected (and non-notified) movement by a key military unit from the mechanised infantry based in Hisar (Haryana) as a part of the 33rd Armoured Division (which is a part of 1 Corps, a strike formation based in Mathura and commanded by Lt Gen A K Singh) in the direction of the capital, 150 km away.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party has said the Congress must publically apologise for questioning the integrity of the armed forces.