Congress says PM Modi is habitual offender in seeking credit for armed forces' sacrifice; gives 'zero' on jobs, economy

The Congress on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for using the Balakot air strikes to woo voters ahead of Lok Sabha elections, saying his "snide remarks" reflect the bankruptcy of political discourse on his part. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also accused the Prime Minister of being a "habitual offender" in seeking credit for the valour and bravery of the security forces after having failed to deliver on key issues of jobs, agrarian and economic crisis and corruption.

"Such snide remarks only reflect the bankruptcy of political discourse on part of a Prime Minister staring at defeat in 2019," he said. "Modiji is a habitual offender in credit seeking for the valour and sacrifice of our armed forces," he alleged. Surjewala said after having "scored a zero" on delivery on jobs, agrarian crisis, slump in economic indices, he is "politicising the bravery of our jawans". "Yet he fails to admit that Pulwama terror attack was a gross national security and intelligence failure as PM was busy shooting movies like a Bollywood star even hours after the attack," he alleged.

The remarks come in the wake of Modi making a mention of the Balakot air strike in Pakistan to woo voters while interacting with watchmen. Modi's remarks came days after the Election Commission said parties should not make use of national security issues in elections. In Wednesday's interaction, Modi also attacked opposition parties over its response to the Indian Air Force's strikes on terrorist camps in Pakistan following the Pulwama terror attack, saying bombs were dropped in the neighbouring country but they were screaming in India.

"Every Indian is proud, but people are sad and perplexed at the response of opposition parties. In fact, those supporting 'tukde tukde gang' are not able to digest that how our armed forced rained bombs on Pakistan," he said while addressing watchmen. Modi was apparently referring to Gandhi's visit to the JNU campus in support of students, some of whom were accused by police of raising anti-India slogans.

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