BJP president J P Nadda. (File)
BJP president J P Nadda Monday said former prime minister Manmohan Singh had “abjectly surrendered” hundreds of square kilometres of India’s land to China and presided over 600 incursions were made by the neighbouring country between 2010 and 2013″.
Taking potshots at the veteran Congress leader, who issued a statement earlier today addressed to Prime Minster Narendra Modi for his handling of the ongoing faceoff, Nadda tweeted: “Dr Manmohan Singh belongs to the same party which: Helplessly surrendered over 43,000 KM of Indian territory to the Chinese! During the UPA years saw abject strategic and territorial surrender without a fight. Time and again belittles our forces.”
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Nadda also termed Singh’s statements as “wordplay” while saying “sadly, the conduct and actions of top leaders of the Congress party will not make any Indian believe such statements”.
Again, the strong words on paper fall flat when we see exactly who is vitiating the atmosphere of unity…
Hope Dr. Singh is able to prevail on his own party at least. pic.twitter.com/rn8vBsCSjG
— Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) June 22, 2020
Nadda also countered Singh’s statement that we must be “united in our response to this brazen threat”. “Again, the strong words on paper fall flat when we see exactly who is vitiating the atmosphere of unity… Hope Dr. Singh is able to prevail on his own party at least.”
The BJP leader further called upon Singh to stop “insulting” the forces and questioning their valour. “They did this post the air strikes and surgical strikes, the BJP president said, asking the Congress to understand the true meaning of national unity, especially in such times.”
In his first remarks via a letter to the prime minister, Singh today said his successor “must be mindful of the implications of his words” and “cannot allow China to use them as a vindication of its position”.
Singh’s remarks came days after a political storm erupted over PM Modi’s remarks that no Chinese troops had intruded into the Indian territory. Subsequently, questions were raised by Opposition leaders on how did India suffer casualties if no Chinese troops entered the territory. The government later clarified that the “focus of the PM’s remarks” at the all-party meeting “were the events of 15 June at Galwan that led to the loss of lives of 20 Indian military personnel” and that “attempts are being made in some quarters” to give it “a mischievous interpretation”.