The tussle between Congress and BJP over Rajiv Gandhi and INS Viraat issue is getting bigger and bigger. The row started after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of using services of Indian Naval Ship INS Viraat for vacation.
Now, verbal fight has taken an interesting turn after Congress leader Divya Spandana dragged Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan in the matter and urged him to reveal the reality over the matter. Divya Spandana shared a news report in which a former Administrator of Lakshwadeep island claimed that PM Rajiv Gandhi never used the services of INS Viraat during the said vacation in 1987 and Amitabh Bachchan was also present during that vacation in 1987.
“Can @SrBachchan please set the record straight for the sake of truth? Does one not feel compelled to speak up in times like these?” Spandana tweeted while urging senior Bachchan to reveal the truth over the matter. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday accused then Prime Minster late Rajiv Gandhi of using aircraft carrier INS Viraat and its personnel for vacations with his foreigner in-laws.
Addressing the gathering in Ramleela Maidan in Delhi, Modi had said, “Who has been treating the forces as personal property? …have you ever heard that a family goes for holiday on a warship? This has happened in our country. The ‘naamdar’ family used INS Viraat as its personal property. They insulted it.”
INS Viraat was withdrawn from its place of deployment and sent to fetch the in-laws of Rajiv Gandhi before it was taken to an island where nobody was there to welcome them and all arrangements for them were made by the personnel of the aircraft carrier, Modi alleged.
The holiday continued not for one day, but for 10 days during which the warship remained stationed there, Modi added. The Prime Minister then asked whether the presence of “foreigners on the warship did not amount to playing with the security of the country. Or was it allowed just because he was Rajiv Gandhi?”
With inputs from IANS