Restrain and mentor your ministers, Congress tells Modi

Opposition parties have come down heavily on the different statements of various Union Ministers on the Army operation against militants in Myanmar.

Terming their statements “boastful and jingoistic” they urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ask the Ministers not to pass irresponsible remarks. The ministers’ comments resulted in a war of words with Pakistan too. The country’s Senate and former military ruler Pervez Musharraf attacked the statements.

The Congress said Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s statement “if the thinking pattern changes, lot of things change” was irresponsible.

Senior party spokesperson Anand Sharma said Parrikar suffers from “foot-in-mouth disease”. “There should be sobriety and maturity. Jingoism and boastful claims are not going to help the operations of India’s special forces,” he said.

Parrikar had said that those who fear India’s new posture have started reacting. “You have seen for the last two-three days. A simple action against insurgents has changed the mindset of the full security scenario in the country,” he had remarked.

Sharma urged the Prime Minister to mentor and counsel his Cabinet colleagues. “PM should restrain his ministers so there is no repeat,” he said. “During the quake relief operations, there was a publicity overkill which caused us embarrassment,” he added, asking Modi to learn lessons from past mistakes.

The Congress further urged the Centre not to use the Army’s operations for public relations.

“Those who should be taking care of national security are busy having sponsored stories in newspapers and photographs about what they have been doing in Manipur; what they propose to do in the coming days,” he added.

The BJP hit back at the Congress. “Congress is in depression ever since it lost the Lok Sabha elections. It is gripped with negative thoughts and criticises everything,” BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.