Congress distances from Digvijaya’s Pulwama jibe

SRINAGAR:  The vintage Congress dissonance returned to flabbergast the party on Monday as it sought to distance itself from its senior leader Digvijaya Singh’s remarks questioning the 2016 surgical strikes and the Pulwama attack in 2019.

“The views expressed by senior leader Digvijaya Singh are his own and don’t reflect the position of Congress. Surgical strikes were carried out before 2014 by UPA government. Congress has supported, and will continue to support, all military actions that are in the national interest,” AICC general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh tweeted.

In Srinagar, Digvijaya triggered a row by saying that there was “no proof” on the Army’s 2016 surgical strikes and that no information was shared in Parliament about the 2019 Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF men were killed. “The CRPF DG had demanded that Kashmir being a sensitive zone, the paramilitary personnel should be airlifted to Delhi from Srinagar through flights. But Modi turned it down,” he said.

Digvijaya was speaking at Satwari in Jammu on Monday at a Bharat Jodo Yatra event. He said in Pulwama every vehicle was being checked by security personnel. “However, a vehicle coming from the opposite direction was not checked. The vehicle later hit the CRPF bus, killing 40 CRPF men,” said Digvijaya. 

In a tweet in Hindi later, he said, “From where did the terrorists get 300 kg of RDX in Pulwama incident? DSP Davinder Singh was caught with terrorists but then why was he released? We also want to know about the friendship between the prime ministers of Pakistan and India.”

On 2016 surgical strikes, the Congress leader said, “They talk of surgical strike and claim many people were killed. But there is no evidence. They (the government agencies) are ruling with a pack of lies.”
Digvijaya’s remarks drew flak from the BJP, which accused the Congress of insulting the armed forces after being “blinded” by its “hate” for PM Modi. BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia hit out at the Congress saying such remarks showed that Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra was only in name while he and his party colleagues were working to “break” the country.