A day after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath described the Indian Army as Modiji ki sena (Narendra Modi's army), the opposition parties on Monday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) strongman for personalising the armed forces and demanded an apology.
Ghaziabad:
The Election Commission on Monday took cognizance of the issue. The district magistrate of Ghaziabad has been asked to furnish a report in this regard, a functionary said.
The report will be submitted to the office of chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh which has sought the details after taking cognizance of media reports in this regard.
"Congress ke log aatankwadiyon ko biryani khilate the aur Modi ji ki sena aatankwadiyon ko goli aur gola deti hai. (Congress would feed 'biryani' to terrorists, while Modi's army gives them bullets and bombs). This is the difference. The Congress people use 'ji' to refer to Masood Azhar to encourage terrorism," Adityanath said at an election rally in Ghaziabad on Sunday.
"Under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, terror camps are being destroyed which is breaking the back of terrorists and Pakistan. This is the work being done by the BJP government and this is the difference," the Uttar Pradesh chief minister added.
"What was namumkin (impossible) for the Congress is mumkin (possible) for PM Modi. Because when Modi is there, the impossible becomes possible," he said.
The chief minister was campaigning for sitting MP and Union minister VK Singh.
Hitting out at the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said: "Now the Indian Army has been renamed as 'Modiji's sena' by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. This is an insult to our armed forces. They are India's armed forces, not the private army of 'Prachaar Mantri'. Adityanath must apologise."
West Bengal Chief Mamata Banerjee said that she was surprised by the comments of her Uttar Pradesh counterpart and that personalisation of Indian Army was an insult.
"It is shocking to hear the UP CM saying that the Indian Army is the 'Modi Sena'. Such blatant personalisation and usurping of our beloved Indian Army is an insult and a humiliation," the Trinamool Congress supremo tweeted.
"We are proud of our Army. They belong to all. They are a great asset of our nation, and not a cassette of the BJP. People of this country must stand up and reject this statement," she said.
Lamented the comments made by Adityanath, Rajasthan Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said: "The nation is proud of its armed forces. They belong to all of us and are not 'Modi ji ki sena'. The BJP should respect our armed forces and stop politicising their valour and sacrifice."
The Election Commission had on March 19 asked political parties to "desist" from indulging in any propaganda involving actions taken by defence forces during their Lok Sabha poll campaigns.
The fresh advisory came days after the poll panel asked parties and their candidates against using pictures of defence force personnel in their campaign material. "...parties/candidates are advised that their campaigners/candidates should desist, as part of their election campaigning, from indulging in any political propaganda involving activities of defence forces," it said.
The poll body said the new advisory was in continuation to its earlier one on use of pictures of defence personnel in campaigning.