Cong slams BJP for playing 'cheap politics' on India-China war

Hitting out at BJP, Congress today accused it of playing "cheap politics" ahead of Lok Sabha polls on the issue of 1962 India-China war in the wake of a classified report on it being made public, saying it only showed the principal opposition party's mindset.

"I don't think that such cheap allegations deserve a response," Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said in sharp reaction to a query about BJP questioning the government's reluctance, even after so many years, to declassify the report which reportedly blamed the Nehru Government.

Large parts of the still classified Henderson Brooks Report on India's debacle has been made public online by Australian journalist Neville Maxwell, who had reported the war. Latching on to this, BJP has demanded that the entire report be made public and "Nehru has to account a lot for".

Singhvi said, "Everybody knows that what happened in 1962 was a product of a complex multitude of diverse factors," and to suggest to make it "unilinear or as a unilateral factor" was to try to "miniaturise" things which were very complex.

"On the eve of elections to try and play such cheap politics after 30 or 40 years shows the mindset of the BJP."

He said "much more" politics could be done today about the Kargil war which happened in contemporary India during the NDA rule, but "I am not going to do it, but could ask you a question how intruders were allowed to enter India (in 1999) with all these new warships and new equipment."

But, Singhvi said, on such matters the nation stands together and "we do not do cheap politics on the eve of elections unlike the BJP."

To a query, Singhvi said, "Certainly, there was lack of preparedness at some level. If you are a serious student of History, you could go into it. But to suggest that Nehru is to blame or Congress is to blame is cheap politicisation."

"We have learnt a lot of lessons. We have come a long way and nobody dares to look us in the eye as some people did in 1960s. In 2014, we are a proud country despite the divisive tactics of the BJP," he said.

Singhvi also hit out at BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi following a clarification issued by WikiLeaks dismissing a claim that its founder Julian Assange had called Gujarat Chief Minister "incorruptible".

Wikileaks clarification came against the backdrop of some BJP supporters circulating posters in Ahmedabad quoting Assange as saying, "America is scared of Modi because he is incorruptible."

Singhvi said, "Whichever people are or party is spreading falsehood day in and day out should be ready to face falsehood propagated by somebody else also. A person who has the passion to play with fire should be ready for immolation also."

"The basic question is how much falsehood Modi spreads," he said, adding, going through the statistics, truth would emerge about Gujarat on various parameters like human development index or economic growth.

States like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Harayana are in No.1 position in some parameters while Gujarat was in sixth or seventh but Chief Ministers of those states "do not go on tom tomming their achievements which Modi does", he said.