Amidst the continuing India-China stand-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh, the BJP on Monday made a sarcasm-mixed political attack on former Congress president Rahul Gandhi for “not attending a single of the 11 meetings” of the Parliamentary defence committee and accused that the “dynasty is only interested in defence commissions & not defence forces”.
Led by BJP national president J P Nadda, the party asked Rahul to explain his conduct of not attending the key standing committee meetings on defence and even giving a go by to an important field visit to the border at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.
Nadda pointed out that the former Congress president had not attended a single meeting of the Standing Committee on Defence during the 17th Lok Sabha. The committee, which has met 11 times since 2019, comprises 21 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 members from the Rajya Sabha.
They have to examine bills pertaining to the Ministry of Defence and other defence-related issues.
“Rahul Gandhi does not attend a single meeting of Standing Committee on Defence. But sadly, he continues to demoralise the nation, question the valour of our armed forces and do everything that a responsible opposition leader should not do”, tweeted Nadda.
The BJP president, in his tweets, lamented that the Congress leader , on the other hand, continued to demoralise armed Forces during the LAC faceoff with China and repeatedly criticised the Modi Government’s handling of the situation along the LAC, making “unverified claims” such as Indian soldiers being sent to fight without weapons and the Chinese troops occupying Indian territory.
Accusing him of not behaving as a responsible opposition leader, Nadda sought to say that he belonged to a tradition where “commissions” matter more than committees. Furthermore, he contended that the Gandhi dynasty would not provide to deserving Congress members who he said were keen to be in the parliamentary committee.
Soon after Nadda hit out at Rahul, BJP spokesperson GVL Narismha Rao demanded that Rahul as an opposition leader and Lok Sabha MP explain his absence in such an important parliamentary committee and giving a miss to the visit by MPs to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.
“The family has interest only in commission be it Bofors gun, HDW submarine, AgustaWestland helicopter or other defence deals. Dynasty takes interest in commission not in armed forces,” Rao said and further accused the Congress leaders of bringing down the morale of the country’s armed forces.