AAP defends Kejriwal over LoC ‘surgical strike’ remarks, takes on BJP

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) defended chief Arvind Kejriwal after his statement “saluting” the prime minister and asking him to “counter” Pakistan’s propaganda over surgical strikes across Line of Control (LOC) drew criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) defended chief Arvind Kejriwal after his statement “saluting” the prime minister and asking him to “counter” Pakistan’s propaganda over surgical strikes across Line of Control (LOC) drew criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Kejriwal had on Monday released a video message saying said Pakistan had gone “berserk” after the strike and was resorting to smear campaign against India at international level.(Sonu Mehta/HT file photo)

BJP leader and union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday said that Kejriwal’s remarks amounted to “seeking proof” of the army action.

He said Kejriwal should not “belittle the great leadership, courage and sacrifice of armed forces under the garb of seeking proof,” and alleged that he had given Pakistan a chance to question the army’s assertion.

But AAP leader Sanjay Singh said nowhere in the video had Kejriwal sought proof of the strikes and instead he had saluted the PM and the army for conducting the strikes.

“In the video, he saluted the Prime Minister and asked him to unmask Pakistan. BJP is saying we are doing politics over it but how is it wrong to salute the PM and the army?,” Singh said.

Kejriwal had on Monday released a video message saying said Pakistan had gone “berserk” after the strike and was resorting to smear campaign against India at international level.

Singh said that Pakistan was spreading false information in the media and there was a need to counter that. “As Indians we will not tolerate Pakistan’s fake propaganda. We appeal to the PM to unmask the false propaganda being spread by Pakistan,” he said.

On being asked if the party wanted videos of the strike to be released as a way to counter Pakistan’s propaganda, Singh said that it was up to the Centre on how it wanted to expose Pakistan’s lies.

“How will India expose Pakistan’s lies is up to the PM and the Centre to decide,” he said.

Meanwhile, AAP staged a protest at the Pakistan High Commission after many party members, including seven party MLAs were detained. They were released later.