Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday minced no words in condemning Digivijay Singh’s comments on the 2019 surgical strike, dismissing the veteran leader’s views as ‘ridiculous’. “Sometimes there are people in every conversation who will say ridiculous things. I’m sorry to have to say this about a senior leader, he said a ridiculous thing,” Rahul Gandhi said during a presser in Jammu.
Distancing himself from the comments made by Singh he said, “I don’t agree with what Digvijaya Singh has said. We completely trust our Army. The Army doesn’t need to furnish proof if it does something. I personally completely disagreed with what he had said,”
Digvijay Singh on Monday stirred controversy with his remarks on the 2019 surgical strike carried out by armed forces. Responding to a question on the party’s stand on Singh’s remarks, the Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Wayanad said, “Digvijay Singh’s views are outlying views, they are not views held by the center of the party.”
His remarks come a day after the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister demanded proof of the 2019 Balakot surgical strike.
Singh on Monday said while the BJP government at the Centre claims to have carried out a surgical strike against Pakistan, there was no proof of it.
“They (Centre) talk about surgical strikes and that they have killed so many of the terrorists but there is no proof,” said the Congress leader in his address in Jammu during the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra.
On February 14, 2019, a CRPF convoy was attacked by militants in Kashmir’s Pulwama, in which 44 Indian jawans lost their lives.
Striking back, on February 26, 2019, Indian Air Force fighter jets targetted an advanced terror training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Pakistan’s Balakot.
Even Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge speaking to reporters in Delhi at party headquarters said, “We have already clarified. There is no need to raise it every time to make it more complicated.”
“We have already clarified that the party stands with the Army. We have always been working for the country and will keep doing the same. We have immense respect for our Army,” Kharge said.