Rajnath takes jibe at Congress over leadership crisis

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday took a swipe at the Congress over its leadership crisis, saying that the opposition party is still searching for a chief and "it is unclear whether there is going to be any president or not".

Addressing a gathering at the launch of the BJP's nationwide membership drive, Singh said the massive mandate for the BJP-NDA in Lok Sabha elections has not affected its attitude.

"As far as the BJP is concerned, we have appointed JP Nadda as the officiating president and started organisational activities. In the Congress, it is unclear who is the part president and whether there is going to be any president or not. The party is still searching who will become its president... such is the situation," the BJP leader said.

Rahul Gandhi has quit as Congress president following the party's Lok Sabha debacle.

The BJP leader also referred to air strikes to destroy terrorist camps in Pakistan and said that the world has accepted that India is no longer weak but a powerful country.

"You have seen the character of India.... It is our character to take revenge from terrorists.... they should turn the pages of history to see that India never attacked any country and did not encroach an inch of land of any country. This is our character," Singh said.

He said that the India never tried to challenge any country's sovereignty but the government is committed to eliminate terrorism and it will continue to work for it.

"When our soldiers destroyed terrorist camps crossing the border in Pakistan, they took all precautions that only terrorist camps and the terrorists taking training there were eliminated.... They did not attack Pakistan's Army. We never tried to hurt Pakistan's sovereignty. The work we did was in line with India's character," Singh said.

On BJP's victory in Lok Sabha elections, Singh said, "Even after achieving such a massive success in the polls, it has neither changed our gait nor our character."