Ashok Gehlot, who generally refrains from commenting on national issues, has been hitting out on PM Modi in his recent media conferences. (Photo: PTI)
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot took an aggressive stand against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked him to apologise to the nation for raising hoax of the death of 350 terrorists in an attack on Pakistan when the entire opposition and the country had stood behind him in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack.
Gehlot, who generally refrains from commenting on national issues, has been hitting out on PM Modi in his recent media conferences. He called the Pulwama attack an act of cowardice and said one is short of words to condemn it.
"BJP leaders are in a depression as they have realised that the claim of killing 350 terrorists in the surgical strike has been a hoax. UPA killed 4,239 terrorists in Kashmir against 876 by the NDA and situation there has worsened, ''Gehlot said.
He said that BJP president Amit Shah has claimed that 250 terrorists were killed, a minister of state put the figure at 250, IAF chief said he could not guess how many were killed and another minister Ahluwalia said the strike was to create a deterrent and not kill terrorists.
Gehlot said he never questioned military actions as he respected soldiers who risked their lives to defend the country. Rajasthan, he said, has so many soldiers who fight and lay down lives for the country. Gehlot also accused PM Modi and the BJP of taking shelter behind Pakistan whenever it was about to lose polls. He said the BJP had done the same just before Gujarat polls but had been silent on Modi's visit to attend Nawaz Sharif's celebrations.
Accusing him of acting as the prime minister of the RSS and the BJP and threatening senior leaders in the opposition, he said it was painful to find PM Modi targeting ancestors of Rahul Gandhi. He said one knows the contribution of Nehru, Indira Gandhi, who had formed Bangladesh and carried out the nuclear explosion, and Rajiv Gandhi who laid down his life for the nation but Rahul Gandhi never made these an election issue. "'We will not target BJP leaders like this,'' he said.
Gehlot also accused the BJP of misusing the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate to target Chidambaram, Robert Vadra, Bhupendra Hooda and others while sparing all BJP leaders.
Gehlot said it was shocking to find PM Modi saying that he knew how to take revenge and given his double speak, he must clarify whom he was referring to when he said he would kill enemies in their homes. "Modi is a habitual liar who could not deliver any speech without a lie", Gehlot said.
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