Editorial in Deccan Herald:
“There is reason for deep concern over the report in a national daily, The Indian Express, about an ‘unexpected (and non-notified) movement’ of two army units towards Delhi on the night of January 16-17… To insinuate that General V.K. Singh would attempt a coup to settle scores with the government is downright slanderous. It is an insult to the Indian Army, which has an unblemished record of being an apolitical force. There are enough safeguards in our system to ensure the supremacy of the civilian government over the military.
“It does seem that the newspaper read too much into what was a harmless and routine movement of army units. It should have exercised greater caution and responsibility in reporting the story the way it did.”
Editorial in The Hindu:
“The Indian Express is entirely within its rights to write about a sensitive matter like this, even if its treatment was overblown. Just as it is unfair for anyone to cast aspersions on the Indian Army, it is unfair to question the motives of the journalists who wrote the story.”
Jim Yardley and Hari Kumar in the New York Times:
“The article, splashed across the front page, created a sensation in the Indian news media, stirring a discussion on the country’s all-news channels and on Twitter, where many criticized the Express for, they said, sensationalizing the episode when relations between civilian and military leaders are already fraught….
“Uday Bhaskar, a retired Indian Navy commodore, agreed that mistrust between military and civilian leaders had deepened, partly because of the poisonous political environment in New Delhi, which he said was fueled by an increasingly sensationalistic media.”
Sandeep Bamzai in Mail Today:
“A leading daily may have unintentionally extrapolated from the website report and sensationalised the story. Or it may have got it right because as they tell us the event is dated January 16 this year. But to run a story of this magnitude may well be a disservice to media and to national interest. Because now it is not just the Army chief, but the Armed Forces which will be viewed with suspicion.”
Editorial in the Economic Times:
“The overall fallout of the story is to lower both the army chief and the defence minister in public esteem, as those who bumble into a messy civil-military standoff.”
Manoj Joshi in Mail Today:
“In journalism, there are dividing lines that define when a news report informs, analyses, titillates or sensationalises. But there is just one line which separates a report which serves national interest from one which does disservice to it. The report in a national daily, which talks about the movement of two crack Indian Army units towards New Delhi on the night of January 16, not only makes unwarranted conjectures, but in the process, damages the body politic of the country.”
Editorial in the Business Standard:
“A binary choice should not be forced on this discussion. Talk of a coup is absurd and the newspaper report may be alarmist; yet there are questions that must be addressed…. Anything less than direct engagement with the substance of the Express report would serve to further undermine public trust in the institution.”
News item in M.J. Akbar‘s Sunday Guardian:
“Sources involved in tracking sensitive developments claim that a senior minister of the UPA government was the mastermind of the April 4 front page item in a daily newspaper about a suspected coup attempt. The sources claim that the minister is connected – through his close relative – with the defense procurement lobbies gunning for Chief of Army Staff General V K Singh, and that the decision to “trick the newspaper into running a baseless report was to drain away support for General Singh within the political class”, who could be expected to unite against any effort at creating a Pakistan-style situation in India….
“According to these sources,the minister in question “is well-known to senior journalistic levels of the publication” that ran the coup report. A military source was “surprised that the newspaper in question ran such a story,in view of the high level of competence of its senior staff”, but added that ” a senior minister being the source of the initial information would explain their belief in the truth of the report”.
Also read: Indian Express ‘C’ report: scoop, rehash or spin?
IJR 
Only “The Indian Express” can do it. This paper in known for introducing investigative journalism in Indian media.
Had it been Rupert Murdoch,the News of the World,Rebekah Brooks , the phone hacking scandal and the public outcry,Shekhar Gupta would have resigned and/ or arrested , owner of the Newspaper would have been called and questioned by the MPs and Indian Express would have been facing closure.The C story is more sinful than the phone hacking scandal.
its abysmal!!
the once great National daily Indian Express stooping to such low levels merely to garner TRP!!
the very conduct of the entire team of journalists is beyond all journalistic norms and ethics. They need to be dealt with under suitable laws and the paper banned
Nincompoop. How come TRP’s? It’s a newspaper report. Yellow journalism I understand!
The whole episode has left all confused…But it is not unexpected. In West Bengal,we witness the reporters operating from home or collecting third hand information..More over that is what is supported by the HR policy of the so called ‘reputed’ newspaper….They recruit reporters at least in West Bengal who are not reporters rather who are ‘porters’..So, as you sow so you reap…
[…] that the Indian Express basically carried a story based on rumours rather than reportage. From this roundup of media responses to the Express story, it’s clear that a lot of people share Mehta’s opinion. As far […]