Don't politicise armed forces, Shah should not give details of armed forces action: A K Antony to PM

Senior Congress leader and former defence minister A K Antony Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of sacrificing national interests and urged him to not politicise the armed forces.

He refused to be drawn into any controversy over his party colleague Digivijay Singh's remarks terming the Pulwama terrorist attack an "accident" and said the security forces were still fighting at the borders.

Singh sparked a controversy when he referred to the Pulwama attack on Twitter as a "durghatana" (accident). He, however, reviewed it to "terror attack" after being trolled on social media.

Antony also said that BJP president Amit Shah should not be the person giving out operational details of actions taken by the armed forces.

"Even now our soldiers died, that details only Army and CRPF can explain, not BJP spokesman or BJP president. It is very very unfortunate.

"Don't politicise the armed forces. Don't bring the military into politics. I request the BJP president, I request the prime minister, don't politicise the Army. As a former defence minister, I am telling them," he told reporters.

Shah has claimed that "more than 250 terrorists" were killed in the Balakot air strike.

The government has so far said the air strike killed a "very large number" of terrorists, trainers and senior commanders.

The IAF, which carried out the strike on February 26, said on Monday that government would provide details on the casualty figures as the Air Force only sees if a target has been hit or not.

Demanding answers from the prime minister for signing onto the Rafale jet deal "without examining the recommendation" of the committee appointed by him during the UPA rule to look into the Indo-French agreement, Antony said, "Prime Minister sacrificed our national interest, according to me.