Congress questioning integrity of army: BJP
Amid the political row between the Opposition and the BJP over the Kashmir situation, the BJP alleged on Monday that the Congress is questioning the integrity of the Indian army.
Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman fired salvoes against the Congress and alleged that it is “consistently naming and shaming the army to demoralise them”. She pointed at former Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit, who referred to the army chief as a “sadak ka gunda (a street goon)” earlier, to drive her point home.
The BJP demanded an apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi even as Dikshit had apologised for his remarks. On Monday, the Congress, too, was quick to distance itself from Dikshit’s comment. Party vicepresident Rahul Gandhi told newspersons no politician should comment on the army chief. “I don’t agree, not good…,” he was quoted by news channels.
“I want to make it clear that Indian Army works for us, it protects India. There is no need for anyone to make comments against the Army chief,” he said.
“The Congress consistently, in a pattern, questions the integrity of the Indian Army… questions the army, to name them and shame them and demoralises them. A responsible party allows its well-known faces to go haywire and doesn’t bother about coming out clean on what its approach it about the Indian Army,” she said.
Sitharaman called the comments shocking and outrageous in a press conference in the capital, setting the stage for a bigger confrontation between the two arch-rivals who have often clashed over the army.
Hours after Dikshit made the remark, he tweeted on Sunday: “I have reservations on a comment of the Army Chief, but I should have chosen appropriate words. I apologise.” But it failed to cut ice with the ruling party.
This is not the first time BJP and Congress have traded barbs over the army. Gandhi had in an election campaign last year accused PM Narendra Modi of using soldiers to score points, a reference to the surgical strikes carried out by India in Pakistanoccupied Kashmir.