Support surgical strikes but not use of army in political posters: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul had accused Narendra Modi of indulging in political exploitation of the sacrifices of soldiers

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Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Friday hit out at the Narendra Modi government for using surgical strikes by the army to gain political mileage.

There has been a bitter war of words between Union Ministers, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and opposition parties for taking credit of the surgical strikes cross-LoC on terror launch pads in PoK.
 

Gandhi who has been criticising the government for claiming credit tweeted, "I fully support the surgical strikes and I have said so unequivocally, but I will not support using the Indian Army in political posters and propaganda all across the country."

On Thursday, Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of indulging in political exploitation of the sacrifices of soldiers.

"Jo hamare jawan hain jinhone apna khoon diya hai, Jammu and Kashmir mein khoon diya hai, jinhone Hindustan ke liye surgical strike kiye hain, unke khoon ke peeche aap chhupe hain. Unki aap dalali kar rahe ho. Yeh bilkul galat hai. {You (Modi) are hiding behind the blood of soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir and those who carried out the surgical strikes for India. You are exploiting their sacrifices, which is very wrong}," he said.

Gandhi's attack comes a few days after he had praised Modi for his first Prime Minister-like action in two years in the context of surgical strikes.

Earlier, Modi had advised his ministers not to do any chest thumping or create hysteria over the success of 'surgical strikes' by the Indian Army, government sources said.