Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday tore into senior Congress leader P Chidambaram’s statement seeking autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir.
Addressing BJP workers here, he said: “The Congress should be learning from its past mistakes, but they’ve decided not to understand or learn from those.”
Accepting Congress’ suggestions will be “an insult to our armed forces”, Modi said, adding: “The Congress leader’s remark is reflective of the party’s view of the Army.”
Chidambaram had said yesterday he believes the Centre should look at areas in which to give J&K more autonomy.
Noting that Sardar Patel took important decisions for the country’s unity, Modi said today thousands of jawans have sacrificed their lives for Kashmir.
“The country’s soldiers have sacrificed their lives every moment for the sake of security of the motherland and innocent citizens of Kashmir. I want to ask the people of Bengaluru — can the country benefit from such people who are playing politics on the sacrifice of our soldiers? They don’t have any shame in saying this. The Congress party will have to give an answer for this (Chidambaram’s) statement,” he said.
Praising the Army’s role during the surgical strikes, Modi said: “We had silenced everyone through the bravery of our Army. Now it will be an insult if we accept the Congress view on Kashmir. Why are Congress leaders lending their voice to those who want azadi for Kashmir?”
Referring to the Doklam stand-off with China, he said: “Our perseverance saw India through the crisis. The entire world saw what happened in the Doklam issue. No matter how powerful China was, India’s perseverance and persistence saw it through.”
“Do you remember the lies Congress was spreading on Doklam? The people of India trusted them so much but such is their conduct. Congress is disconnected with the aspirations of our country,” he further said. “The BJP is committed to preserve the country’s unity and diversity and will not be compromised at any cost.”
Later in the day, Modi addressing a gathering at Dashamah Soundarya Lahari Parayanotsava Mahasarmapane, stressed on the need to promote renewable sources of energy.
Clean tech Urging the youth of Bengaluru to develop clean cooking technologies, Modi said this would help thousands of women in the country.
Such technologies would definitely find a good market in India, he said.
“The future of power supply lies in sustainable technology and not petrol and diesel,” he added.
Talking about the use of LED lighting, Modi said it has helped save 7,000 MW of power for the country and ₹7,000 each for families using them. “Renewable energy is easy to implement in the country which believes in sustainable living. This is an answer to climate change as well.”