Strongly condemning the multiple terrorist attacks in Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa on Sunday asked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi as to where was that “56-inch chest” now that he used to boast about during the lok Sabha election campaign to ridicule and degrade what he used to describe as the softness of the UPA Government towards terrorist attacks from across the line of control.
Bajwa reminded Modi of his aggressive ‘chicken biryani’ and ‘chhappan inch ki chhaati’ statements in the context of relationship with Pakistan and terrorist attacks.
He recalled that even senior BJP leader and now the Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj used to talk in a very aggressive manner to paint the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh as weak and spineless in the face of attacks in Jammu & Kashmir from across the border.
“Your studied silence after the recent attacks including one on the army establishment is intriguing. Country wants to know as to what is your policy in the context of your statements during the election campaign. It is under your rule that such serious incidents have taken place,” he said.
PPCC chief pointed out that it was during the NDA regime when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister that Parliament was attacked. It was again during the NDA regime that Kargil hills were occupied by the enemy leading to a limited war.
It was the BJP led NDA government which surrendered to the Pakistan-based terrorists at Kandahar. “Now attack of such magnitude had taken place. Modi must now come out with the policy of his government as he had raised much heat during the election campaign on this very issue,” he said.
Bajwa asserted that it was the Congress-led UPA government which had adopted a mature approach towards the neighbours but it were the parties like BJP, which, for narrow political interests, opposed that line of dealing with the situation at every level and using every channel. Modi resorted to rhetoric to win the election and the country was now nowhere, he alleged.