Stop shedding crocodile tears for India's soldiers: BJP to Rahul Gandhi

Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman G V L Narsimha Rao on Tuesday lashed out at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for shedding crocodile tears for India's armed forces, and cautioned him about the fact that the whole country is aware that he cannot be trusted.

Rao told ANI, "After having deprived soldiers of One Rank, One Pension (OROP) for over four decades, for ten years the Congress party was in power between 2004-2014, it was Rahul Gandhi who remote controlled the Manmohan Singh government. They made an election promise in 2004 in their manifesto, but they did not spent one penny on implementing OROP when they were in office, and today, for the Congress Party to shed crocodile tears for soldiers, this is not going to impress anyone."

"The entire country has contempt for the Congress party and the whole country realizes that Rahul Gandhi is not a leader that can be trusted, he is not a leader who understands politics, who can comment maturely. Rahul Gandhi's desperate attempt to be taken seriously is falling on deaf ears; with every statement, he is proving to be a completely unsuitable leader for the Congress party," he added.

Rao's comments came a day after Rahul Gandhi chaired a crucial meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CEC) in the absence of party president Sonia Gandhi, and chose the occasion to describe Prime Minister Modi as an individual who was "power-obsessed". He also called on the gathering to expose the Centre's failures during the winter session of parliament beginning next week.

Rahul asserted that democracy under the present dispensation is going through one of its darkest hours and accused the government of silencing those disagreeing with it.

"Hiding behind the cloak of national security, civil society is being intimidated for asking questions. Television channels are being punished and being asked to shut down. The opposition is being arrested for holding the government to account. All attempts by this government to suppress our fundamental freedoms by abusing state power will only strengthen our resolve to defeat such dangerous designs," he said.

Listing out a range of failures of the NDA Government, he emphasized that the Centre is hiding behind numbers that have been widely doubted and questioned.

"Selectively chosen corporates are favoured, not the aam aadmi. Youth, even those who have a good education, face the spectre of unemployment. Famers' suicides and agrarian unrest have increased to astonishing levels," he claimed.

He said the Centre has swung from one extreme to another in dealing with Islamabad and issues concerning Jammu and Kashmir.

Pointing out that Indian soldiers have suffered the highest causalities in decades under the NDA dispensation, the Congress vice president maintained that the nation's armed forces are being cruelly rewarded by a callous government.

"With state elections due in the coming months, we can safely expect the Modi government to launch a campaign of disinformation and polarization. They will exploit caste and religious fault lines. We must anticipate and neutralise such devious strategies," he added.

The "comprehensive failure" of the Modi government must be highlighted, he said.