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Tribune News Service
Shimla, February 25
Former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma today said it was for the first time that a Prime Minister had tried to gain political mileage by highlighting the achievements of the Army such as surgical strike during election rallies.
Addressing a press conference here, he said such acts of the PM only belittled the sacrifices and achievements of the Army. “The Army does not belong to the Prime Minister or the BJP but to the entire nation,” he said. Neither the Congress nor the NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee ever tried to take such credit. Sharma said even during the 1971 war when over one lakh Pakistani army personnel surrendered, the Congress did not capitalise on this victory. “Even during the Kargil War when Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, the Army was never dragged into the political arena,” he remarked. He advised the PM to exercise restraint and maintain a balance in his speeches.
He lamented that Modi had brought the standard of political debate to a low. “We can’t stoop to the level of Modi when he compared us with a Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab,” he said. He took strong exception to the remarks made by Modi not just about the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, but also about leaders of other parties like the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BSP.
He said the PM was an authoritarian who only believed in adopting a confrontationist approach and not engaging in dialogue. “I would like to advise the PM not to treat his political opponents as his personal enemies,” he said.
He also lashed out at the pernicious campaign of the RSS and the BJP against Rahul Gandhi. “They have launched a campaign against him as they fear that he will take on their party,” he said.
Sharma said despite none of the reasons cited by Modi for demonetisation, including fighting corruption, black money and terror-funding being justified, the PM is unwilling to debate the issue. “He is accountable to the nations as the GDP has gone down, almost four crore to six crore jobs lost, 70 per cent of the factories have closed down and the unorganised sector has been the worst hit,” he said.
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