Parrikar receives ire from Congress over RSS comment

New Delhi: Reiterating its charge that the Narendra Modi Government was indulging in the politicisation of the surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the Congress, referring to statements made by Mr Manohar Parrikar in the aftermath of the operations, said that he (Parrikar) does not deserve to be the Defence Minister. Talking to reporters here, AICC Spokesperson Manish Tewari, referring to the latest statement by Mr Parrikar in which he credited the RSS for operations along the LoC, said, 'Why is the Defence Minister of India always so over the top.

Today he has credited the RSS for operations along the Line of Control. 'Earlier, he had said like Hanuman, the Army did not know their process until I pointed out to them their strength & capacity. He even said,'such an action has never been done before. This is the first surgical strike by the Army. Nowhere in the world has such an operation been done with such a degree of success. 30 yrs of helplessness have been lifted with this action. People erupted with joy'. Then they blame others for politicising the operations along the LoC. Mr Tewari said while the NDA Government was an abject failure where it had to speak, the Defence Minister was quick to credit the RSS for operations along the LoC. 'Where the Government is supposed to speak, where the diplomacy is to do a job, there the Government is in abject failure. But, the Defence Minister is quick to credit the RSS for operations along the LoC. This leads to two inescapable conclusions : that Manohar Parrikar doesn't deserve to be the Defence Minister.

He is a national embarrassment, and that Operations along the LoC were targeted at domestic consumption rather than changing the deep state in Pakistan,' Mr Tewari said. Speaking at a “Know Your Army” event organised at the Nirma University campus, Mr Parrikar, giving credit to the teachings of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for the successful surgical strikes last month, said, “I wonder that a Prime Minister from land of Mahatma Gandhi and a Defence Minister from Goa and surgical strikes, the situation was quite  maybe the RSS teachings was there, but this was very different kind of combination.” Slamming the statement by Mr Parrikar, Mr Tewari said,'we would like to ask the BJP and the Defence Minister, did former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. Go to an RSS Shakha? Did Defence Minister Yashwantrao Chavan go to an RSS Shakha? Did Prime Minister Indira Gandhi go to a Shakha? Did Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram go to a Shakha? Did Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw go to a Shakha? Did General JS Arora go to a Shakha?'

 Claiming that the the strategic restraint of the previous UPA Government, actually yielded results, Mr Tewari said, 'the strategic restraint of the UPA, where we conducted operations but kept our lips zipped, actually yielded results. In Jammu and Kashmir, in 2004, 281 security personnel, 700 civilians and 976 terrorists were killed. By 2009, incidents were down to 1/5th. Security personnel deaths were down to 78, civilians were 71 and terrorists 239 because infiltration was stopped. In 2014, incidents were down to 222, forces killed down to 47, civilians 28 and terrorists 110. Therefore, a policy of strategic restraint and carrying out operations to change the behaviour of the deep state in Pakistan showed results. We won't allude to Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Pampore, Uri and various incidents which have taken place in the last 2 yrs.' (UNI)