Friday, 17 December 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
For decades during its rule, the Congress did nothing for the honour of the soldiers or to resolve their issues but indulged in the pretense of honouring soldiers in Dehradun. Stating this, the Bharatiya Janata Party state president Madan Kaushik challenged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to first reply to BJP’s questions.
Stating that Rs one lakh crore has been allocated in the past five years by the Centre for development in Uttarakhand, Kaushik asked which ambitious schemes did the Congress give Uttarakhand when it had the chance to make its own double engine government from 2004 to 2007 and from 2012 to 2014 when Congress was in power in both Uttarakhand and the centre. The Congress should also explain what it had done for the honour of soldiers in the decades when it was in power. Kaushik asked, “Did the Congress fulfill the demand for one rank, one pension since 1970? During Congress rule, the body of a soldier martyred at the border used to be handed over to his family with a black blanket, a black box and a postcard.
Was this the honour for which Rahul Gandhi observed the programme in Dehradun? The party which displayed pictures of the late general Bipin Rawat to talk of honour is the same which had a leader calling general Rawat a ‘sadak ka goonda’. When general Rawat’s daughters were immersing his ashes in the Ganga in Haridwar, the whole of Uttarakhand and India was solemn but senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi was dancing at an event in Goa. Is this the tradition of honouring soldiers which Congress talks of? After the Balakot air strike, various Congress leaders had sought evidence of the same. Its leaders had also questioned the bravery of our soldiers after the surgical strike. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress leaders should reply to the various questions related to insulting the armed forces,” said the BJP state president.
