BJP hits back at TRS chief over 'surgical' strikes

BJP in Telangana hit out at K Chandrasekhar Rao for questioning over surgical strikes and State BJP president K Laxman asked Rao to apologise to the families of soldiers who fight bravely at the borders against all odds.

Hyderabad: The BJP in Telangana on Saturday hit out at Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for allegedly questioning the surgical strikes carried out under the BJP government.

State BJP president K Laxman told reporters here that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said Friday 11 surgical strikes were made during the UPA I regime when he was a Union minister.

"What strikes does he think of? Is it surgical strikes... Yes, strikes happened. Workers' strikes also happened (during the UPA regime). Rao should apologise to the people for allegedly saying that 'hollow strikes' happened during the Modi government," he said.

"...If you are speaking the language of Pakistan, I am saying, are you eligible to be the chief minister? You are speaking the interpretation of Pakistan," Laxman claimed. Referring to the recent air strikes on Jaish-E-Mohammed terror camps in Balakot in Pakistan, he said that Rao quoted JeM chief Masood Azhar who had said that even an ant did not die in the air strikes.

"He does not have confidence in the Indian Army that he has in Masood Azhar. What is his patriotism? Telangana people should observe what is his respect for the country," Laxman said.

He demanded that Rao apologise to the families of soldiers who fight bravely at the borders against all odds. Taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of surgical strikes, Rao had Friday said such "strategic attacks" are never disclosed.

"...surgical strikes happened 11 times when I was in the Union Cabinet. They are strategic attacks which are never disclosed. They do it, we do it," said Rao, who was a member of the UPA Cabinet till 2006 when he resigned from it over the issue of separate statehood for Telangana.

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief said Modi "boasts that 300 terrorists were eliminated in a single attack". "Azhar Masood said not even an ant died," Rao claimed.

Slamming Rao for wondering what good happened to the country under Modi's rule, Laxman said the BJP is synonymous with the development of infrastructure in the country.

Road development got top priority during the NDA regime headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and also under the Modi government, he said, highlighting welfare and development initiatives of the country.

Dismissing TRS leaders' comments that the NDA would not get more than 150 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, Laxman asked if they are ready to take political 'sanyas' in case it secured more than 150 seats. Telangana goes to polls in the first phase on April 11.