JOIN USDon’t agree with ‘ridiculous’ views of Digvijaya Singh on Balakot: Rahul Gandhi
Top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Tuesday castigated Digvijaya Singh for his comments on Balakot surgical strike, saying the party does not agree with his "ridiculous" views, as Army does not need to give any proof of what it does.
Addressing a press conference in Jhajjar Kotli in Jammu on the sidelines of Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul faced a volley of questions on Singh's remarks at a rally in his presence when he questioned the Pathankot terror strike and sought proof for the subsequent Balakot strike.
"We do not agree with what Digvijaya Singh has said at all. We have full faith in our Army. If the Army is doing something, there is no need for the Army to give proof. I completely disagree with his statement. Congress' official position is that it is not our opinion but his... We don’t appreciate Digvijaya’s personal views, but the views of the party are above Digvijaya Singh’s views," he said.
Asked why no action is being taken against Singh, who has made controversial statements earlier also, Rahul said Congress is a "democratic party and not a dictatorship", as they do not run the party with "principles of coercion.
Emphasising that the party is "crystal clear" that armed forces do a "job exceptionally well and they do not need to be providing proof for anything", he said Congress' culture is to allow conversations and sometimes when those conversations happen, people who have extreme views, air their views.
"In the BJP and in the RSS, there is no conversation. They just decide that this is what is going to be and nobody can talk after this. It is like demonetisation. The Prime Minister gets up one morning and says- we are going to demonetise or like GST, where, you know, you completely destroy the backbone of the country, because you are not having a conversation," he said.
"We think a conversation is very, very important and sometimes, of course, there are people in every conversation, who will say ridiculous things and in this case, I am sorry to have to say this about a senior leader, he said a ridiculous thing," Rahul said, as the BJP pounded attack on the Congress following Singh's remarks. Congress on Monday itself had distanced itself from Singh's remarks.
While addressing a public rally in Jammu on Monday, former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh said, “They (Centre) talk about surgical strikes and that they have killed so many of them (militants) but there is no proof. The Centre is ruling with the help of lies. I want to tell you that this country belongs to all of us.” India army launched surgical strikes in 2016 days after 18 soldiers were killed in a terror attack on an army base near Line of Control (LoC) in Uri area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Asked about Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's comment that he was spreading hatred and defaming India abroad through Bharat Jodo Yatra, "the Defence Minister has to say what he has been told to say. I don't think he has a choice."
He said he does not understand how a padayatra which is uniting people is harming the interests of the people. "When the Congress was fighting for independence, the RSS-BJP people were standing with the English. Their ideology and people propagated the two-nation theory, not the Congress. Savarkar did it," he added.
Rahul reiterated that the primary focus of the Congress was to get statehood restored to Jammu and Kashmir and early Assembly polls. “J&K youth are suffering from depression and discomfort. We are here to listen to them and understand their issue,” he said, adding that the media too has been suppressed to an extent as if the Yatra is not happening at all.
Asked if BJY was apolitical, why he was continuously targeting BJP, he said that since Congress is the grand old political party, there will surely be a bit of politics in his speeches.
When Kashmiri Pandits, farmers and unemployed youth would meet me, there would obviously be a problem if I don’t talk about them,” the Congress leader said.
He said that the yatra had largely succeeded to fight against the ‘narrative of hatred’ spread across the country and bring the folks together yet again.
We have been able to bring the people across the country together yet again through BJY. There were a lot of lessons for us in the Yatra which we have learnt after meeting people of various shades during our journey,” the Congress MP said.
Meanwhile, Bollywood actress Urmila Matondkar joined the yatra as it resumed from Nagrota in Jammu district, on a cold Tuesday morning. The actor-turned-politician joined Gandhi shortly after the march started from near the army garrison around 8 am amid tight security.
Matondkar had resigned from the Congress in September 2019 after a short association of six months, and joined the Shiv Sena in 2020.