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Defending party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s remarks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trading in the blood of soldiers, the Congress on Friday said the BJP was trying to use armed forces for political gain.
Attacking BJP chief Amit Shah for his comments against Rahul Gandhi, party leader Kapil Sibal said the Congress had nothing to learn from a person who was once imprisoned on murder charges.
The BJP was quick to respond. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad targeted Sibal personally for the “zero loss theory in 2G scam”, which he said brought the Congress’ tally in the Lok Sabha down to 44 seats. Prasad said the Congress had “stooped to a level” where “defending Rahul Gandhi is more important than defending the country”. Prasad said Sibal used “shameful, regrettable” language from the Congress’ official platform.
Sibal said the Election Commission had issued an order against political parties using pictures of soldiers in their pamphlets. He said ministers in the Modi Cabinet were trying to extract political gains from the Army’s recent surgical strike across the LoC. “We unequivocally, unquestionably stand with the defence forces of our country and with the political establishment of the country that supports our defence forces. But when Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar starts making statements to make political capital out of something that we should be quiet about, we will not keep quiet. What Rahul Gandhi said was that please do not make political capital out of something where politics should not be played,” Sibal said.
Sibal quoted Modi as having said when in Opposition: “We are facing many a crises, all this is happening due to the weakness of the Army”.
‘Sibal good for BJP’The BJP, on the other hand, was disturbed by Sibal describing party Shah as a “criminal”. “What do they mean by that? Doesn’t Sibal know that the case against our party President has been quashed by courts? I think the more Mr Sibal speaks the better it is for us. He can take the Congress down from 44 seats to 24,” said Prasad. “I cannot believe that a party which has ruled the country for over 50 years is behaving in such an irresponsible and immature manner.”
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