All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday rebuked Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for referring to the armed forces as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Army or Air Force. The Hyderabad legislator was responding to a report about BJP President Amit Shah claiming that Modi “sent his Air Force” to destroy terror camps in Pakistan after the attack on troops in Pulwama.
“Modi’s Army. Modi’s Air Force. Modi’s nuclear ‘cracker’. What used to belong to the nation has become Modi’s in five years,” Owaisi tweeted. “Is he running the country or playing PUBG?” Owaisi was referring to the online multiplayer PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds mobile video game.
On Monday, Shah had said, “Forty-four of jawans were martyred [40 were killed] in Pulwama terror attack. Earlier, nothing used to happen after such incidents. Narendra Modi ordered his Air Force on the 13th day [after the incident] and our aircraft blew the terrorists to pieces in Pakistan.”
On April 17, the Election Commission had issued a warning to Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi for referring to the defence forces as “Modiji ki Sena [Narendra Modi’s Army]” and asked him to be careful in the future.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath had also called the Army “Modiji ki Sena”. The poll body had let him off with a warning for the comment, and said it was not satisfied with his response to its notice.
On Monday, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah targeted Modi for his remarks on Indian nuclear capability with a reference to the video game. “Whether Diwali or Eid, both PM Modi and Ms [Mehbooba] Mufti have used the threat of nuclear annihilation as some sort of PUBG type game where they can just hit the reset button and life will carry on,” Abdullah had said. “Both of them would be well served to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki when issuing such threats.”
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