New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hit out at the Congress party for using the defence sector either as punching bag or as a funding source for it.
"For the Congress, national security and the defence sector is either a punching bag or a funding source," he said in an interaction with BJP workers from Tamil Nadu through video conference from New Delhi.
The Prime Minister alleged that the (Congress) leaders mock at the surgical strike on the one hand while on the other, they have looted defence sector from the jeep scam back in the 1940s and 50s to the Bofors in the 80s, the AgustaWestland and submarine scam, among many others.
"All they see is the way to make money even if it means the morale of our forces is diminished," Modi said.
"We are proud of our forces and have faith in them," the Prime Minister said.
During an election campaign in Rajasthan recently, PM Modi had slammed Congress president Rahul Gandhi for "raising doubts" over the cross-border surgical strike carried out by the Army in September 2016.
He had alleged that the military operation left the opposition party dejected instead of elated.
His jibe at the Congress came after Gandhi accused him of shaping the Army's surgical strike across the LoC into a "political asset" and being "unsuccessful" in creating job opportunities for the youth.
Just recently, General Hooda, who had led the surgical strike operations across the Line of Control in response to a terrorist attack in Uri, said that while it was natural to have an initial euphoria over the success, the constant hype around the operation was unwarranted.
Using that as ammunition, Rahul Gandhi launched a counterattack on the PM.
Not one to miss the chance to target Modi, Gandhi tweeted that that the PM had “no shame in using our military as a personal asset.”
Gandhi, at a poll rally in Rajasthan, had claimed that the Army had conducted three surgical strikes during the UPA era but it was kept quiet at the force’s behest.
“Do you know that like Narendra Modi’s surgical strike, (former PM) Manmohan Singh did that three times? When the army came to Manmohan Singh and said we need to retaliate against Pakistan for what they’ve done, they also said we want it to be secret, for our own purposes,” the Congress president said.
Comments
0 comment