Following the furore over former information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari admitting that the Raisina Hill incident was reported correctly by the Indian Express in 2012, Minister of State for External Affairs V K 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.

Earlier, Tewari 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.

Questing the timing of the admission made by Tewari, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said his comments have become a 'suspect' and put the United Progressive Alliance regime under the scanner.

"Manish Tewari's comments raise the question about the timing of the statement. His comments become a suspect. I would only ask why was he quiet when his government had denied that there was anything like this happening when they were in power," BJP leader Siddharthnath Singh said.