Congress leader and Telangana Chief Minister has questioned India's Balakot airstrike in Pakistan
After Telangana Chief Minister Revnath Reddy raised fresh questions over the Pulwama terror attack in 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party today came down heavily on the Congress and said that the Congress party is questioning the "bravery" of the military and putting India under question on the issue of terrorism by giving "clean chit" to Pakistan.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla claimed that the Congress is getting "support" from Pakistan.
"Now it has been clear that these are not mere coincidences but well thought experiment the way Congress party is taking stands for Pakistan and terrorism and giving them the clean chit... Now, Revanth Reddy, the Telangana CM, is not only giving clean chit to Pakistan on Pulwama and alleging India but also questioning the surgical strike...", he said.
"In their attempt to oppose Modi, the Congress party is questioning the bravery of the military and putting India under question on the issue of terrorism by giving a clean chit to Pakistan. They are giving them a way to protect themselves at international forums from allegations of terrorism. This is the real intention of Congress and hence they are getting support from Pakistan," he added.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Prakash Reddy said that the remarks of the Telangana Chief Minister are against the "national interest."
"These are irresponsible statements and against the national interest. His statement on IB and R&AW and any other intelligence agency demoralises them. When you are talking about surgical strikes or Pulwama incidents, the IB or R&AW alone are not responsible. Even though those agencies are actively working, sometimes it happens...It's unfortunate. It is an irresponsible statement that demoralises intelligence activities. The Congress party changed its colours many a times just for the sake of votes and people know about your political ambition very well," he said.
Laying the blame on the BJP-led NDA at the Centre for 'failing' to prevent the Pulwama attack, the Telangana Chief Minister said, "For (Narendra) Modi, everything is political. Everything is about winning elections. His way of thinking is not good for the country. The time has come for the country to be rid of (Narendra) Modi and the BJP. Ask them anything and they will respond with 'Jai Shri Ram' (glory to Lord Ram). They failed to prevent the Pulwama attack. What was the IB doing? What was our intelligence network doing?"
Claiming that PM Modi tried to derive political and electoral benefits from the Pulwama attack and the retaliatory action by the Indian Air Force (IAF), Mr Reddy said, "Modi-ji attempted to extract political and electoral benefits from the airstrikes after the Pulwama incident. I want to ask him: What were you doing? Why did you let it happen? What did you do to boost the country's internal security? Why did you not take the help of the agencies at your disposal such as the IB and R&AW? It was your failure. Nobody knows for sure if the airstrike, as was claimed, took place. If the responsibility of ensuring the country's internal security was with us, we wouldn't have left it in anyone's hands."
Earlier, on Friday, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar found himself trouble again after a clip of an old interview surfaced in which he is heard saying that Pakistan, as a nuclear-armed country, deserves respect. He also advocated the need for India to reengage with its neighbour.
The Pulwana attack went down on February 14, 2019, after a suicide bomber rammed an IED-laden vehicle into a CRPF bus.
Days after the attack, on February 26, the Indian Air Force carried out airstrikes on a JeM terror hideout in Pakistan's Balakot, killing a 'large number' of terrorists and destroying their infrastructure.
Pakistan's efforts to launch counter-strikes on Indian military installations in Jammu and Kashmir were thwarted by the Indian Air Force.
Striking back on February 26, 2019, IAF fighters targeted an advanced terror training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Balakot.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)