BJP President Amit Shah on Saturday hit back at Congress President Rahul Gandhi for his remarks that the Modi government turned the surgical strikes into a political asset and said that it was an "insult to martyrs" of Uri.
"You people are happy that Modiji avenged the deaths of our soldiers of Uri but this Rahul Baba was just telling people that he (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) did the surgical strikes to win Uttar Pradesh polls. Shame on you," he said addressing an election rally here.
Terming Rahul Gandhi's remarks as an "insult to the martyrs", he said that the UPA government led by the Congress did not have the guts to avenge the killings of soldiers.
"You will not realise it Rahul baba that what difference this surgical strike has made. Every soldier of the country whether he is from Rajasthan, Gujarat or Punjab or Kashmir, has a feeling that his government stands behind them," he said in the poll-bound state.
Shah was referring to Rahul Gandhi's remarks in Udaipur where he said the Prime Minister exploited the surgical strikes of 2016 to prevent defeat in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls last year. He had also claimed that the UPA government did three similar strikes but kept them a secret.
In 2016 the armed forces conducted "surgical strike" across the Line of Control in a reprisal to the Uri Attack the same year in which 10 soldiers were put to death by setting on fire by the Pakistan soldiers.
"Pakistan sent 10 terrorists in Uri and burnt 10 of our soldiers alive. Entire country was in shock that what will we do now. But this time, this was not the government of 'Mauni Baba' Manmohan Singh, but the government of Narendra Modi, elected by you people.
"This was not the government of Congress but of Bharatiya Janata Party. And within 10 days, Modi government ordered the soldiers, who avenged the deaths of our soldiers through surgical strike by entering into their own land," Shah said.
-- IANS
vn/bns/vsc/bg
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)