Twitter
Advertisement

Modi's comments on Balochistan sends Congress into a tizzy, leaders speak in different voices

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comments on Balochistan have stumped the main Opposition Congress, whose leaders are speaking in different voices.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comments on Balochistan have stumped the main Opposition Congress, whose leaders are speaking in different voices.

While party's chief spokesperson Randip Singh Surjiwala on Tuesday insisted that the party-led UPA government had consistently spoken about the "spiralling violence" and "heavy Pakistani military action" in the restive Pakistani province of Balochistan, another spokesperson and former minister Jairam Ramesh at the party briefing implied that Modi, by raising this issue deviated from the consensus that had emerged at the all-party meeting on August 12 and when Parliament debated unrest in Kashmir a day earlier.

Another party leader and former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid had also criticised Modi for the adventure. "PoK is our entitlement. We will support it. But by bringing in Balochistan, you are ruining our case... We are going to ruin our own case on PoK," he said. This would give an "additional handle" to Pakistan to target India as "we don't speak about atrocities in neighbouring countries and will be seen as interfere in internal affairs," he said.

But, party's chief spokesman Surjiwala said raising issue of Balochistan was a legacy of preveious Congress and UPA government, which has condemned the human rights violations in that region as also in PoK by Pakistani forces and establishment on multiple occasions in the past. Besides, he said, none less than the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in reply to a parliamentary question on March, 2, 2006, categorically condemned the spiralling violence in Balochistan and heavy military action, including use of helicopter gunships and fighter jets by the government of Pakistan to suppress the people of Balochistan.

On the other hand, Ramesh said the PM's concluding speech at the all-party meeting as well as his Independence Day address lacked consensus. "The general view or the consensus was that while Parliament has passed a Resolution in the past, that PoK is an integral part of India, part of the undivided State of Jammu & Kashmir, there is an immediate issue to be confronted which is a restoration of peace and normalcy in the Kashmir Valley. So, one does not exclude the other. There is a long term issue of the PoK. There is also short term challenge we face. You can't have a situation of 35 consecutive days of curfew," he said.

He said there is another attempt of Modi to whip up patriotism to divert attention from real issues that included increasing dal prices, and also from elections coming up in UP an attempt will be made every day to whip up jingoistic sentiments.
 

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement