Stop headcount exercise in Army, demands BJP

"This is a terrible mistake. The Govt must stop this exercise immediately," BJP leader Arun Jaitley said.

The BJP has demanded an immediate suspension of the headcount exercise in the Armed Forces, saying that religion had never been an issue in the Defence.

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"This (headcount) is a terrible mistake. The Government must stop this exercise immediately," BJP leader Arun Jaitley said.

"This has never been done in the past. Indian Armed Forces are always kept away from caste and religion controversies. The high professionalism of the Indian Army has never been in question and religion has never been an issue," he added.

Jaitley's comments came a day after LK Advani led a walkout of BJP and its allies from the Lok Sabha demanding that Armed Forces should not be subjected to the survey being conducted by the Rajindar Sachar Committee constituted to go into the socio-economic condition of Muslims.

The walk out came after Advani was involved in a verbal duel with Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, with both accusing each other of playing vote bank politics.