Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Friday criticised Rahul Gandhi for accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using the death of Indian soldiers in Kashmir for political mileage. Shah, who addressed the media in Delhi for the first time since the Army's surgical strikes along the Line of Control, said, “Just want to ask Rahul Gandhi, is ‘dalali’ a word to refer to Indian Army and their efforts to save the country?”
Shah also criticised the Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal for raising doubts on the surgical strikes and said that the parties raising question on the surgical strikes are demeaning the Army. “Soon after Kejriwalji made statement on the surgical strikes, he started trending in Pakistan. Soon after, Rahulji talked of 'dalali'”. Shah urged the leaders who questioning the strikes to visit Pakistan and “find out for themselves”.
“The uproar that is happening in Pakistan is enough proof for the surgical strikes, the sceptical political parties can analyse that. If it did not happen, why was a special session in Pakistan called? Why is the Pakistan prime minister constantly in Islamabad?” said Shah.
The BJP national president said though the government tried its best not to politicise the issue, it “will go to people about the success of the country's Army.” He added that the government and BJP “believe in Army’s bullets, not politicians' statements.”
Before Gandhi, Congress member Sanjay Nirupam's comments had questioned the authenticity of the Army's surgical strikes along the LoC with Pakistan on September 29. The Congress had the distanced itself from Nirupam's allegations and even said it "unequivocally supported the Indian Armed Forces" and the Centre's efforts to fight terrorism. It has not responded to Gandhi's statement.
On October 4, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had criticised Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for demanding footage of the surgical strikes. The Union minister also came down heavily on Congress veteran P Chidambaram for saying that the Centre had carried out similar operations during the Congress' regime but never made them public.
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