Congress on Friday hit back at BJP asking whether the morale of jawans was not affected when 188 jawans were killed in terror attacks in the last 30 months and when Prime Minister Narendra Modi feasted with his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif.
“Please tell if morale wasn’t affected as 188 jawans were martyred in 30 months in terror attacks but Modiji couldn’t contain Pakistan. Please tell if morale of our jawans wasn't affected when Modiji feasted with Sharif in Pakistan,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.
The BJP had accused the Opposition party of speaking the language of separatists and of playing politics over Army chief Bipin Rawat’s remarks that “stern action” will be taken against those siding with terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir.
Surjewala also asked the Minister of State in PMO Jitendra Singh whether the morale of jawans was not affected when Modi invited “rogue ISI” to investigate the Pathankot terror attack.
“Please tell if morale of Jawans wasn’t affected as BJP-PDP Government gave compensation to the kin of dreaded terrorists in J&KIJ Please tell if morale of Jawans isn't effected as Madhya Pradesh BJP members are caught teaming with the ISI and running a racket to spy on Army,” Surjewala tweeted.
Earlier, in reply to a query on the Army chief's remarks , Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said restraint should be adopted by the security forces while dealing with people in the State.
“The issue of internal security of the country is a serious one and there can be no compromise on it. But as I had said during the last Parliament session, atrocities should not be inflicted on innocents. Action should be taken against those involved in wrong doings but there is need to adopt restraint,” Scindia said.
He said children were blinded and atrocities were committed against them during the agitation last year in the State. “There is need for restraint as no one wants to give shelter to bad people. There should be strict action against wrongs, but that should happen after proper investigation,” he said.
Jitendra Singh had asked political parties not to politicise the Army chief’s statements and appealed to them, including Congress, to not indulge in any kind of politicking at the cost of morale of security forces.