JOIN USUnder pressure to respond to criticism from the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena and other parties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday defended his government’s handling of the border crisis with Pakistan.
“People know my intentions and I need not express those in words. Where the jawans have to speak, they speak with their finger on the trigger... and they will continue to speak that way,” Modi said.
He also appealed to the opposition parties not to politicise the issue. “Such an issue should not be part of a political debate... Elections will come and go, governments will come and go, but please don’t demoralise those fighting on the border by debating these things for political gains,” Modi told a rally in NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s home ground of Baramati.
Targeting Pawar, who had criticised him for holding poll rallies in Maharashtra when there was tension on the border, Modi said, “When you were the defence minister, there were problems with Pakistan and China on the border. Did you ever bother to go to the border then?”
“There have been terror strikes in Maharashtra during your tenure... Mumbai, Malegaon, Pune. You could not even touch the terrorists, leave alone catching them. In the spirit of patriotism, we never politicised the issue,” Modi added.
Calling Modi a “control freak”, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said, “when we have such a serious issue at our borders, we should not have an absentee prime minister.”
“Prime Minister is a control freak. He wants to be everywhere... Whether by design or default the prime minister has been absent during crucial period. He has been busy pretending to be the chief ministerial face for every state be it Maharashtra or Haryana,” Sharma said.