The ruling party’s top leaders – Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and BJP President Amit Shah – on Friday took charge of the counter-offensive against the Congress, which has questioned the manner in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded to the terror attack, by asserting that a “befitting answer” will be given for the soldiers’ killing in Kashmir.

At a public meeting in Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, BJP President Amit Shah said that the ruling party is committed to “fight a decisive war against terrorism” while characterising the Congress and its regional ally, the DMK, as a “weak and corrupt alliance”. Simultaneously,The Finance Minister, in his blog, underlined that the Congress needs to be better educated about issues of national security and that its present position gives an impression that India is divided on how to fight terrorism.

‘Have zero tolerance’

“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP is committed to fighting a decisive war against terrorism. We have a ‘zero tolerance’ policy on terrorism. The sacrifice of the soldiers will not go in vain. We will give a befitting response for Pulwama,” said the BJP president.

Describing the appointment of Lt General DS Hooda (Retd.) as the head of an advisory committee on security matters in the Congress as a “belated and grudging recognition” by Congress President Rahul Gandhi of surgical strikes conducted by the Army in 2016 across the LoC, the Finance Minister said that the Congress President would now be better educated on matters concerning national security.

Rahul Gandhi had, after the surgical strikes were hailed and publicised by the ruling party as an effective counter-terrorism measure, maintained that the BJP was playing politics. The term he used at the time was “ khoon ki dalali ”.

“Yesterday, the Congress President announced the appointment of Lt Gen DS Hooda (Retd.) and a committee headed by him to advice the party on National Security Policy. Lt. Gen. Hooda is an experienced and distinguished former officer of the Indian Army. I have not the least doubt that he would give a very valuable advice to the grand old party. The appointment of General Hooda is significant as it is a belated and grudging recognition and acceptance of the surgical strikes of 2016 with which the General was intrinsically associated. I am sure the Head of the Advisory Panel would educate party leaders that the surgical strikes were no routine step which had been taken several times in the past, but a significant first for India,” said the Finance Minister.

Jaitley said the Congress’s present position on Pulwama “trivialising” national security issues and is in sync with Rahul Gandhi’s support to separatist and extremist elements.

“The Party which has ruled the country for over half a century should need to be educated on national security concerns is somewhat intriguing,” said Jaitley.

Advice rendered

Among the issues Jaitley enumerated as those on which Rahul Gandhi needs education were – “Do not give an impression to the world that India is divided on how to fight terrorism. When the world is rallying around India, the Opposition in India should not be striking a discordant note. Do not trivialise a serious national concern on terrorism as has been done by the Congress spokespersons in the past two days. Next time, if extremists and separatists raise slogans on how to break India (the JNU incident), no one from mainstream parties should pay a supporting visit to them. There is no freedom of speech to advocate a breakup of India.”

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