E-Paper
Congress, BJP trade barbs over who politicised Balakot strikes first
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal trained guns on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Saturday, claiming it was he who had first politicised the Balakot air strikes by quoting the number of terrorists purportedly killed in the February 26 attack deep inside Pakistani territory.
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal trained guns on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Saturday, claiming it was he who had first politicised the Balakot air strikes by quoting the number of terrorists purportedly killed in the February 26 attack deep inside Pakistani territory.
Sibal’s comment came hours after Shah asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to clear his party’s stand on Balakot in the light of Indian Overseas Congress chief Sam Pitroda saying one could not “jump on an entire nation” (Pakistan) just because some people from that country “came here and attacked”, in a possible reference to the Pulwama terror attack.
“We were happy your government carried out the air strikes after Pulwama. But I want to know how many terrorists were killed. Why is that too an unofficial secret? If you have killed 2,000 terrorists, I will personally come and congratulate you. We never asked for any figures after Balakot. Amit Shah started this. He said we killed 250, then somebody said 300, they politicised this. BJP raised questions against the government constantly after the 2008 [Mumbai terror] attack. Was questioning the government then not anti-national?” Sibal asked.
He then shifted the focus on to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Modi ji, please tell us how many security personnel were killed during your tenure. You call us traitors, but the real traitor is the one who failed to shield our security personnel. I remember when the 26/11 Mumbai attack was underway, you criticised the government. Don’t teach us patriotism.”
Sibal said over 60 security personnel were killed since the February 14 Pulwama attack “while the chowkidar was sleeping”.
He also hit out at the government’s economic policies, saying countless citizens had suffered due to demonetisation and many had lost their lives. “Thousands of small businesses had to close down, sowing of crops was delayed, demand collapsed which impacted farmers’ income. The GDP took a hit of close to 2 per cent in the quarter of demonetisation while 15 lakh jobs were lost in the first four months after demonetisation.”
